This thesis discusses low-power wireline receivers with particular focus on clocking circuitry and architectures. These clocking solutions can be used for a 1-D partial response channel as well as for a conventional DC coupled channel. The receiver front end for a 1-D channel requires more consideration to recover an NRZ signal from the received narrow pulses. Two possible solutions are presented. First, a full-rate detection technique is presented, where the speed is limited by the settling time of a latch circuit which has to be less than 1 UI. Second, a novel demuxing technique is introduced. It is demonstrated through theory, simulation and measurement results that the half-rate architecture can improve maximum achievable speed by a factor of 1.6. The distribution and alignment of high-frequency clocks across a wide bus of links is a signi¯cant challenge in modern computing systems. A low power clock source is demonstrated by incorporating a bu®er into a cross-coupled oscillator. Because the load is isolated from the tank, the oscillator can directly drive 50-Ohm impedances or large capacitive loads with no additional bu®ering. Using this topology, a quadrature VCO (QVCO) is implemented in 0.13 um digital CMOS. The QVCO oscillates at 20 GHz, consumes 20 mW and provides 12% tuning range. Injection locked oscillators (ILOs) are an attractive clocking tool for low-power area- e±cient wireline receivers. In this work, we explored their use as a clock deskew element, a clock recovery unit and a programmable jitter lter. A study of both LC and ring ILOs indicates signi¯cant variation in their jitter tracking bandwidth when used to provide large phase shifts. By selectively injecting di®erent phases of a quadrature-LC or ring VCO, this problem is obviated resulting in reduced phase noise. First, an ILO based half-rate clock recovery technique is presented, which can be used for AC coupled links where low frequency signal components are attenuated by the channel. The nonlinear path comprises a hysteresis latch that recovers the missing low frequency content and a linear path that boosts the high frequency component by taking advantage of the high pass channel response. By optimally combining them, the front-end recovers NRZ signals up to 13 Gb/s burning only 26 mW in 90 nm CMOS. A simple theory and simulation technique for ILO-based receivers is discussed. The clock recovery technique is veried with experimental results at 5-10 Gb/s in 90 nm CMOS consuming 70 mW and acquiring lock within 1.5 ns. Second, a clock forwarded 65nm CMOS receiver uses two ILOs to frequency- multiply, deskew, and track correlated jitter on a pulsed clock forwarded from the transmitter. Di®erent data rates and latency mismatch between the clock and data paths are ac- commodated by a jitter tracking bandwidth that is controllable up to 300MHz. Each receiver consumes 0.92 pJ/bit operating at 7.4 Gb/s and has a jitter tolerance of 1.5 UI at 200MHz.

This thesis discusses low-power wireline receivers with particular focus on clocking circuitry and architectures. These clocking solutions can be used for a 1-D partial response channel as well as for a conventional DC coupled channel. The receiver front end for a 1-D channel requires more consideration to recover an NRZ signal from the received narrow pulses. Two possible solutions are presented. First, a full-rate detection technique is presented, where the speed is limited by the settling time of a latch circuit which has to be less than 1 UI. Second, a novel demuxing technique is introduced. It is demonstrated through theory, simulation and measurement results that the half-rate architecture can improve maximum achievable speed by a factor of 1.6. The distribution and alignment of high-frequency clocks across a wide bus of links is a signi¯cant challenge in modern computing systems. A low power clock source is demonstrated by incorporating a bu®er into a cross-coupled oscillator. Because the load is isolated from the tank, the oscillator can directly drive 50-Ohm impedances or large capacitive loads with no additional bu®ering. Using this topology, a quadrature VCO (QVCO) is implemented in 0.13 um digital CMOS. The QVCO oscillates at 20 GHz, consumes 20 mW and provides 12% tuning range. Injection locked oscillators (ILOs) are an attractive clocking tool for low-power area- e±cient wireline receivers. In this work, we explored their use as a clock deskew element, a clock recovery unit and a programmable jitter lter. A study of both LC and ring ILOs indicates signi¯cant variation in their jitter tracking bandwidth when used to provide large phase shifts. By selectively injecting di®erent phases of a quadrature-LC or ring VCO, this problem is obviated resulting in reduced phase noise. First, an ILO based half-rate clock recovery technique is presented, which can be used for AC coupled links where low frequency signal components are attenuated by the channel. The nonlinear path comprises a hysteresis latch that recovers the missing low frequency content and a linear path that boosts the high frequency component by taking advantage of the high pass channel response. By optimally combining them, the front-end recovers NRZ signals up to 13 Gb/s burning only 26 mW in 90 nm CMOS. A simple theory and simulation technique for ILO-based receivers is discussed. The clock recovery technique is veried with experimental results at 5-10 Gb/s in 90 nm CMOS consuming 70 mW and acquiring lock within 1.5 ns. Second, a clock forwarded 65nm CMOS receiver uses two ILOs to frequency- multiply, deskew, and track correlated jitter on a pulsed clock forwarded from the transmitter. Di®erent data rates and latency mismatch between the clock and data paths are ac- commodated by a jitter tracking bandwidth that is controllable up to 300MHz. Each receiver consumes 0.92 pJ/bit operating at 7.4 Gb/s and has a jitter tolerance of 1.5 UI at 200MHz.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Many telemetry stations would like to convert from using digital-to analog converters (DAC's) to using direct digital inputs to their chart recorders but can't find a suitable recorder interface. These stations often have hundreds or even thousands of channels of information being bussed around at very high speeds on propriatary real-time computer systems. The lack of standardization has naturally presented recorder manufacturers with problems in selecting the appropriate interface hardware. Standard parallel interfaces, such as SCSI and GPIB, are usually too slow and not really suited for real-time transfer, although they can be used in some circumstances which will be described. The best choice seems to be a general purpose parallel port of at least 16 data bits which can support a large number of addresses. Such an interface can be used with a high speed network like SCRAMNet as well as with a general purpose computer or workstation. This paper will describe several available parallel ports using both TTL and RS-485 (long-line) hardware and some practical implementations of thermal array recorder use with SCRAMNet, GPIB, and general purpose parallel busses.

<p>'Image volumes' refer to realizations of images in other dimensions such as time, spectrum, and focus. Recent advances in scientific, medical, and consumer applications demand improvements in image volume capture. Though image volume acquisition continues to advance, it maintains the same sampling mechanisms that have been used for decades; every voxel must be scanned and is presumed independent of its neighbors. Under these conditions, improving performance comes at the cost of increased system complexity, data rates, and power consumption. </p><p>This dissertation explores systems and methods capable of efficiently improving sensitivity and performance for image volume cameras, and specifically proposes several sampling strategies that utilize temporal coding to improve imaging system performance and enhance our awareness for a variety of dynamic applications. </p><p>Video cameras and camcorders sample the video volume (x,y,t) at fixed intervals to gain understanding of the volume's temporal evolution. Conventionally, one must reduce the spatial resolution to increase the framerate of such cameras. Using temporal coding via physical translation of an optical element known as a coded aperture, the compressive temporal imaging (CACTI) camera emonstrates a method which which to embed the temporal dimension of the video volume into spatial (x,y) measurements, thereby greatly improving temporal resolution with minimal loss of spatial resolution. This technique, which is among a family of compressive sampling strategies developed at Duke University, temporally codes the exposure readout functions at the pixel level.</p><p>Since video cameras nominally integrate the remaining image volume dimensions (e.g. spectrum and focus) at capture time, spectral (x,y,t,\lambda) and focal (x,y,t,z) image volumes are traditionally captured via sequential changes to the spectral and focal state of the system, respectively. The CACTI camera's ability to embed video volumes into images leads to exploration of other information within that video; namely, focal and spectral information. The next part of the thesis demonstrates derivative works of CACTI: compressive extended depth of field and compressive spectral-temporal imaging. These works successfully show the technique's extension of temporal coding to improve sensing performance in these other dimensions.</p><p>Geometrical optics-related tradeoffs, such as the classic challenges of wide-field-of-view and high resolution photography, have motivated the development of mulitscale camera arrays. The advent of such designs less than a decade ago heralds a new era of research- and engineering-related challenges. One significant challenge is that of managing the focal volume (x,y,z) over wide fields of view and resolutions. The fourth chapter shows advances on focus and image quality assessment for a class of multiscale gigapixel cameras developed at Duke.</p><p>Along the same line of work, we have explored methods for dynamic and adaptive addressing of focus via point spread function engineering. We demonstrate another form of temporal coding in the form of physical translation of the image plane from its nominal focal position. We demonstrate this technique's capability to generate arbitrary point spread functions.</p> / Dissertation

We examine the design of a high speed atomic force microscope using an optical pickup from a commercially available compact disc/digital versatile disc drive. An investigation of the commercial optical pickup is done with the goal of determining how it can be used for dimensional measurements on nanometer scale. An evaluation of noise sources, imaging capabilities, and functionality is performed.

Lau Yiu Kee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-146). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / LIST OF TABLES --- p.viii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.x / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Motivation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Railway Vehicle Suspension --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Semi-Active Magnetorheological Fluid Damper --- p.3 / Chapter 1.4 --- Research Objectives --- p.4 / Chapter 1.5 --- Thesis Outline --- p.5 / Chapter 2. --- BACKGROUND --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1 --- MR Fluids --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Composition of MR fluids --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Properties and characteristics of MR fluids --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Literature review --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2 --- MR Devices --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Advantages of MR devices --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Common device geometries --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- MR fluid based applications --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Literature review --- p.19 / Chapter 2.3 --- Overview of Railway Vehicles --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- "Passive, active and semi-active suspensions" --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Basic railway vehicle structure --- p.23 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Literature review --- p.25 / Chapter 2.4 --- Railway Vehicle Suspension Systems --- p.25 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Primary vertical suspension --- p.25 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Secondary vertical suspension --- p.27 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Secondary lateral suspension --- p.27 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Yaw suspension --- p.28 / Chapter 3. --- DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR MR DAMPERS --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1 --- Overview of Existing MR Dampers --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Monotube MR fluid damper --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Double-ended MR damper --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Bellow type MR damper --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2 --- Optimal Design and Configuration of Magnetic Circuit --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Magnetic circuit and magnetic field orientation --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Physical dimension of MR damper --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Connection polarity of electromagnetic circuit --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3 --- Basic Geometry Design Considerations --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Controllable force and dynamic range --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Geometry constraints --- p.45 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Magnetic circuit design --- p.47 / Chapter 4. --- DEVELOPMENT AND FABRICATION OF MR DAMPERS --- p.51 / Chapter 4.1 --- Pneumatic Air Cylinder --- p.51 / Chapter 4.2 --- Fabrication Process of Double-Ended MR Dampers --- p.55 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Modifications on the pneumatic air cylinder --- p.55 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Manufacturing processes of the piston sleeve --- p.56 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Modification processes of the original piston rod --- p.59 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Modification of the piston staging area --- p.60 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Copper wire wrapping and damper assembling --- p.63 / Chapter 5. --- EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND RESULTS --- p.66 / Chapter 5.1 --- Experimental Setup for the Double-Ended MR Damper --- p.66 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Instron 8801 loading machine --- p.66 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Experimental setup for testing the MR damper --- p.67 / Chapter 5.2 --- Force-Lag Phenomenon of MR Damper --- p.70 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Force-lag phenomenon --- p.70 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Reasons of the force-lag phenomenon --- p.73 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Methods to eliminate the force-lag phenomenon --- p.76 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- Setup for hydraulic pump system --- p.77 / Chapter 5.2.5 --- Results and effects of the pressurized MR damper --- p.79 / Chapter 5.3 --- Experimental Results for Testing the MR Damper --- p.83 / Chapter 6. --- SIMULATION RESULTS OF SEMI-ACTIVE TRAIN SUSPENSION --- p.87 / Chapter 6.1 --- MR Damper Model --- p.87 / Chapter 6.2 --- Rail Vehicle Model --- p.92 / Chapter 6.3 --- Semi-Active Railway Suspension --- p.94 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Lateral vibration on the train --- p.94 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Semi-active control strategy --- p.95 / Chapter 6.4 --- Simulation Results --- p.98 / Chapter 6.4.1 --- Lower sway mode excitation --- p.99 / Chapter 6.4.2 --- Upper sway mode excitation --- p.105 / Chapter 6.4.3 --- Mixed sway mode excitation --- p.110 / Chapter 6.4.4 --- BR high speed assault course --- p.116 / Chapter 6.4.5 --- Discussions --- p.124 / Chapter 6.5 --- Effects of Vibration on Ride Comfort --- p.128 / Chapter 7. --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.134 / APPENDIX --- p.136 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.142

In a rectangular cross-section wind tunnel a separated oblique shock reflection is set to interact with the turbulent boundary layer (oblique SBLI) both on the bottom wall and in the corner formed by the intersection of the floor with the side-walls. In such a scenario, shock-induced separation is often seen in each of the streamwise corners, resulting in a highly three-dimensional flow field in the near-wall region. To examine how the corner separations can affect the `quasi-two-dimensional' main interaction and by what mechanism this is achieved, an experimental investigation has been conducted. This examines how modifications to the corner separation influence an oblique shock reflection. The nature of the flow field is studied using flow visualisation, Pressure Sensitive Paint and Laser Doppler Anemometry. A nominal freestream Mach number of 2.5 is used for all experiments with a unit Reynolds number of $40\times10^6$m$^{-1}$, and the shock-generator angle is set to $8^\circ$. The flow conditions are chosen to result in substantial separations both in the corners and along the centreline for the baseline case, which is thought to be a good starting point for this study. The results show that the size and shape of central separation vary considerably when the onset and magnitude of corner separation change. The primary mechanism coupling these separated regions appears to be the generation of compression waves and expansion fans as a result of the displacement effect of the corner separation. The presence and strength of the expansion waves have been overlooked in previous studies. This is shown to modify the three-dimensional shock-structure and alter the adverse pressure gradient experienced by the tunnel floor boundary layer. It is suggested that a typical oblique SBLI in rectangular channels features several zones depending on the relative position of the corner waves and the main interaction domain. In particular, it has been shown that the position of the corner `shock' crossing point, found by approximating the corner compression waves by a straight line, is a critical factor determining the main separation size and shape. Thus, corner effects can substantially modify the central separation. This can cause significant growth or contraction of the separation length measured along the symmetry line from the nominally two-dimensional baseline value, giving a fivefold increase from the smallest to the largest observed value. Moreover, the shape and flow topology of the centreline separation bubble is also considerably changed by varying corner effects.

In this thesis I explore how migratory properties of the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum are influenced by dimensionality and topology of the environment that surrounds the cell. Additionally, I sought to develop a microfluidic device able to measure mechanical properties of single cells with a sufficient throughput to account for the inherent heterogeneity of biological samples. Throughout this thesis I made use of microfabrication methods such as photo-lithography and soft-lithography, to develop ad hoc microstructured substrates. These tools enabled me to tackle different biological and biomedical questions related to cell migration and cell mechanics. Confining cells into channels with low dimensionality appeared to regulate the velocity of cellular locomotion, as well as the migration strategy adopted by the cell. Spatial confinement induced an altered arrangement of the acto-myosin cytoskeleton and microtubules. Moreover, the spatial constraint resulted in a simplified, mono-dimensional migration, characterised by constant average speed. Additionally, some cellular processes tended to occur in a periodic fashion, upon confinement. Interestingly, if Dictyostelium cells migrated through asymmetric bifurcating micro- channels, they appeared to be able to undergo a ’decision-making’ process leading to a directional bias. Although the biophysical mechanism underlying this response is yet to be understood, the data shown in this thesis suggest that Dictyostelium cells respond to differences in local concentrations of chemoattractants. The speed of a cell that crawls in a channel also depends on the cell’s stiffness, that in turn represents a measure of the density and structure of its cytoskeleton. To date, only a few methods have been developed to investigate cell mechanics with sufficient throughput. This motivated my interest in developing a microfluidic-based device that, exploiting the recording capabilities of a modern high speed camera, enabled me to assess the cellular mechanical properties at a rate greater than 10,000 cells per second, without the need for cell labelling. In this thesis I presented an example of how this method can be employed to detect differences between healthy and cancerous prostate cells, as well as to differentiate between prostate and bladder cancer cells based on their mechanical response. In conclusion, the work presented in this thesis highlights the interdisciplinarity required to investigate complex biological and biomedical problems. Specifically, the use of quantitative approaches that span from microtechnology, live imaging, computer vision and computational modelling enabled me to investigate novel biological processes as well as to explore new diagnostic technologies that aim to promote the improvement of the future healthcare.

The purpose of this dissertation was to better understand position specific physical qualities and how they relate to high speed running performance throughout the course of a competitive collegiate soccer season. The amount of literature devoted to female soccer players is scarce when compared to the vast amount of literature associated with male soccer players. The objectives of this dissertation were: 1) to determine if playing position has an influence on physical qualities such as speed, change of direction ability, countermovement jump performance, relative strength, rate of force development, and intermittent endurance capacity, 2) investigate the differences between high and lower caliber players as defined by minutes played per match when considering the physical qualities mentioned previously, 3) and finally to assess the influence of physical qualities and playing position on high speed running performance throughout the course of a competitive season. Data from 57 Division I Women’s Collegiate soccer players from a single institution were used. The influence of playing position and caliber of play on physical qualities were assessed using both laboratory and field based testing assessments. It appears that attacking based players (forward, wide midfielder, and attacking midfielder) were faster compared to defensive based players (central defensive midfielder, central defender, and goalkeeper) when assessed during 20 m sprint assessments and change of direction ability assessments. The only variable to differentiate between caliber of play was the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test – Level 1 (YYIRT1), indicating that higher caliber players possess greater intermittent endurance capacity compared to lower caliber players. Playing position was the major contributor when assessing high speed running performance during competition, explaining almost 70% of the variance. These findings highlight the impact of tactical factors on physical performance during competition and the need for position based assessments to better identify relevant physical qualities with respect to playing position in Division I Women’s Collegiate Soccer players. Further research is needed with a wider range of players from various levels to determine if these findings exist across all levels or are unique to the institution used during these investigations.

Inter-chip input-output (I/O) communication bandwidth demand, which rapidly scaled with integrated circuit scaling, requires high performance I/O links to achieve a per pin data rate as high as multi-Gb/s. The design of high-speed links employing forwarded-clock architecture enables jitter tracking between data and clock from low to high frequencies. Considering the impact of clock to data skew, high frequency sampling clock jitter and data jitter become out of phase at receiver, which reduces the timing margin and limits the data rate. The jitter tracking bandwidth (JTB) between data and clock should be optimized to compensate the clock to data skew. System level analysis shows that the wide tunable range of JTB is needed to compensate different amounts of skews. The implementation of bandpass filtering on forwarded-clock path is able to control the JTB through the controlling of Q. This work introduces a method using bandpass filtering to optimize the JTB in high-speed forwarded-clock transceivers, followed by the implementation of active-inductor-based bandpass filter as clock receiver, which has advantages of low-voltage operation, low power as well as low area consumption. Simulation results shows that the designed filter provides controllable JTB over 40 - 600MHz. The bandpass filter is implemented in IBM 90nm CMOS process.