Thesis (M.S. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Systems Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, Sept. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Phillip E. Pace, Murali Tummala. Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-140). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Applied Physics)--Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Nancy M. Haegel, Gamani Karunasiri. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-45). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-114). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 2003. / Title from title page of source document. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Applied Physics and M.S. in Electrical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Gamani Karunasiri, James Luscombe, Robert Hutchins, John Powers. Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-131). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, August 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54). Also available in electronic version.

A handheld InfraRed (IR) Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gas detector was developed and used to carry out a study of water and urine samples in South Africa. The details of the model and the results of the study are discussed here. The overseas markets are not geared for the current South African conditions. Use is made of components that can be obtained locally. Imported components are very expensive and should an imported model be damaged, it has to be returned overseas to be repaired. As an illustration of this technology it was decided to perform research in water technology and then develope a handheld Infrared CO2 gas detector based prototype which would: highlight the benefits of using handheld IR CO2 gas detectors; be built locally; be powered by a 12 Volt supply; be very easy to maintain; and be cost effective. Experimental results on the accuracy and stability of the instrument formed part of this study. The IR CO2 Gas detector that was developed was used throughout the project as a prototype and testing vehicle for numerous designs. It proved to be superior to the current imported commercial instruments in terms of size, cost effectiveness and user friendliness. A further advantage of the instrument is its robustness.

[Truncated abstract] Infrared (IR) detectors have many applications across a wide range of industries. HgCdTe is the leading semiconductor material for fabrication of high-performance IR detectors due to a number of superior fundamental material properties. However, significant technological challenges are involved in working with this narrow bandgap material, primarily due to its low damage threshold. Exposure of HgCdTe to H2/CH4/Ar plasma in IR detector fabrication processes is known to generally cause modifications to the electrical properties of the material, specifically including p-to-n type conductivity conversion. This is an undesirable side-effect when aiming to perform physical etching for device delineation. However, it has previously been exploited as a novel means of planar n-on-p junction formation for high-performance HgCdTe photodiode fabrication. This technique offers significant advantages over established junction formation techniques such as ion implantation and ion beam milling. These include not requiring a postimplant anneal to activate dopants and repair ion-induced damage, and not necessitating reapplication of the passivation layer after junction formation. Previous work has demonstrated high-performance photodiodes based on H2/CH4 plasmainduced junction formation using a parallel-plate reactive ion etching (RIE) tool. The newer hybrid inductively coupled plasma (ICP) RIE technology is capable of greater control of the plasma condition, and therefore potentially greater control of the plasma-induced type conversion process. ... Differential profiling has been performed using wet chemical etch-backs between measurements to investigate the depth profiles of the carrier species. This investigation has revealed that the ICPRIE-induced type conversion depth is most sensitive to the sample temperature during exposure. The other ICPRIE process parameters, including the process pressure, RIE power, and ICP power, have also been shown to affect the type conversion depth and the electron concentration and mobility in the type converted layer. Based on this carrier transport characterisation work, a set of ICPRIE process conditions was identified as being suitable for formation of n-on-p junctions for high-performance photodiode fabrication. Three sets of photodiodes have been fabricated and characterised. The ICPRIE process parameters for junction formation were refined based on the parametric study of the carrier transport properties. The performance of photodiodes from each sample was measured to improve with each set of variations to the conditions for ICPRIE-induced junction formation, based on performance characterisation by current-voltage and noise measurements. Dynamic resistance area products up to 2.5 × 106 O.cm2 at 77K were measured for these mid-wave (MW) IR photodiodes (cutoff wavelength 5.3 µm), which is equivalent to the best reported results in the literature for devices based on established fabrication techniques. Gated photodiode structures were used to demonstrate that surface passivation is the performance-limiting factor for these photodiodes. This indicates not only that the set of ICPRIE conditions developed in this work to date is suitable for producing high-performance photodiodes, but that there is also potential for further improvement.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / In the boost phase interception of ballistic missiles, determining the exact position of a ballistic missile has a significant importance. Several sensors are used to detect and track the missile. These sensors differ from each other in many different aspects. The outputs of radars give range, elevation and azimuth information of the target while space based infrared sensors give elevation and azimuth information. These outputs have to be combined (fused) achieve better position information for the missile. The architecture that is used in this thesis is decision level fusion architecture. This thesis examines four algorithms to fuse the results of radar sensors and space based infrared sensors. An averaging technique, a weighted averaging technique, a Kalman filtering approach and a Bayesian technique are compared. The ballistic missile boost phase segment and the sensors are modeled in MATLAB. The missile vector and dynamics are based upon Newton's laws and the simulation uses an earth-centered coordinate system. The Bayesian algorithm has the best performance resulting in a rms missile position error of less than 20 m. / 1st Lieutenant, Turkish Air Force