A method was proposed for the fabrication of air-gaps embedded in dielectric layers using thermally decomposable sacrificial polymers. The research had two main objectives: (1) the development and characterization of air-gap fabrication for use in a wide spectrum of applications; and (2) the integration of air-gaps into a specific application: air-gaps in an integrated circuit compliant wafer level packaging technology, Sea of Leads. Polynorbornene and polycarbonate sacrificial materials were used to form air-gaps at temperatures of 200, 300, and 400oC. Fabrication results of air-gaps encapsulated by both inorganic and organic dielectric materials indicated that the thermal and mechanical properties of the dielectric materials at the decomposition temperature of the sacrificial material resulted in success or failure of the process. Multi-layered encapsulating materials enabled the use of a dielectric material which does not successfully form air-gaps on its own. Thermal decomposition of the sacrificial materials with alteration in the polymer chemistry was studied. Polynorbornene containing 90 mol% butyl and 10 mol% triethoxysilyl side groups was selected as an optimum 400oC decomposition temperature material. The decomposition of this polynobornene composition in an open nitrogen atmosphere was contrasted to decomposition of the polynorbornene while completely encapsulated in a dielectric material. Thermogravimetric analysis and examination of residual surfaces following the decomposition, combined with comparison of the overall kinetic parameters of the decomposition reaction, indicated differences in the two overall processes. The design concept of Sea of Leads three-dimensionally compliant packaging technology with embedded air-gaps is presented. The critical issues resulting from the addition of air-gaps into the process are the compatibility of materials, lithography on topographical features, and yield and uniformity. Factors influencing the z-axis mechanical performance of the air-gap were determined to be the air-gap shape and size, the encapsulating material dielectric properties and thickness, and the decomposition conditions. Model calculations combined with the known limitations of fabrication provided a design space for maximum out-of-plane mechanical movement and compliance of the air-gaps. The results demonstrated that the incorporation of an embedded air-gap in Sea of Leads technology can achieve the necessary z-axis compliance goals for future applications.

In the thesis, we study the rearrangeability of the Banyan-type network with crosstalk constraint. Let $x$, $p$ and $c$ be nonnegative integers with $0leq x,cleq n$ and $n,pgeq 1$. $B_{n}(x,p,c)$ is the Banyan-type network with, $2^{n+1}$ inputs, $2^{n+1}$ outputs, $x$ extra-stages, and each connection containing at most $c$ crosstalk switch elements. We give the necessary and sufficient conditions for rearrangeable Banyan-type networks $B_{n}(x,p,c)$.

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In this dissertation, the design and analyses of an extremely scalable distributed multicomputer architecture, using optical interconnects, that has the potential to deliver in the order of petaFLOP performance is presented in detail. The design takes advantage of optical technologies, harnessing the features inherent in optics, to produce a 3D stack that implements efficiently a large, fully connected system of nodes forming a true 3D architecture. To adopt optics in large-scale multiprocessor cluster systems, efficient routing and scheduling techniques are needed. To this end, novel self-routing strategies for all-optical packet switched networks and on-line scheduling methods that can result in collision free communication and achieve real time operation in high-speed multiprocessor systems are proposed. The system is designed to allow failed/faulty nodes to stay in place without appreciable performance degradation. The approach is to develop a dynamic communication environment that will be able to effectively adapt and evolve with a high density of missing units or nodes. A joint CPU/bandwidth controller that maximizes the resource allocation in this dynamic computing environment is introduced with an objective to optimize the distributed cluster architecture, preventing performance/system degradation in the presence of failed/faulty nodes. A thorough analysis, feasibility study and description of the characteristics of a 3-Dimensional multicomputer system capable of achieving 100 teraFLOP performance is discussed in detail. Included in this dissertation is throughput analysis of the routing schemes, using methods from discrete-time queuing systems and computer simulation results for the different proposed algorithms. A prototype of the 3D architecture proposed is built and a test bed developed to obtain experimental results to further prove the feasibility of the design, validate initial assumptions, algorithms, simulations and the optimized distributed resource allocation scheme. Finally, as a prelude to further research, an efficient data routing strategy for highly scalable distributed mobile multiprocessor networks is introduced.

An implementation of a series interconnection scheme for small distributed generation systems is presented in this thesis. The concept uses one set of voltage source converter to control the injected voltage magnitude and phase angle for power injection and voltage sag mitigation. Because of the use of series interconnection scheme, the energy storage device outputs vary concurrently with the line loading and provides loading leveling functions. Under voltage sag situations, it provides missing voltage to effectively deal with power quality problems. The control algorithm uses the reference voltage tracking concept. A signal phase 484 VA prototype of the proposed system is implemented. The performance of the proposed method is simulated and verified by using Matlab-simulink package and the implemented module.

High Performance Computing (HPC) is the key to solving many scientific, financial, and engineering problems. Computer clusters are now the dominant architecture for HPC. The scale of clusters, both in terms of processor per node and the number of nodes, is increasing rapidly, reaching petascales these days and soon to exascales. Inter-process communication plays a significant role in the overall performance of HPC applications. With the continuous enhancements in interconnection technologies and node architectures, the Message Passing Interface (MPI) needs to be improved to effectively utilize the modern technologies for higher performance. After providing a background, I present a deep analysis of the user level and MPI libraries over modern cluster interconnects: InfiniBand, iWARP Ethernet, and Myrinet. Using novel techniques, I assess characteristics such as overlap and communication progress ability, buffer reuse effect on latency, and multiple-connection scalability. The outcome highlights some of the inefficiencies that exist in the communication libraries. To improve communication progress and overlap in large message transfers, a method is proposed which uses speculative communication to overlap communication with computation in the MPI Rendezvous protocol. The results show up to 100% communication progress and more than 80% overlap ability over iWARP Ethernet. An adaptation mechanism is employed to avoid overhead on applications that do not benefit from the method due to their timing specifications. To reduce MPI communication latency, I have proposed a technique that exploits the application buffer reuse characteristics for small messages and eliminates the sender-side copy in both two-sided and one-sided MPI small message transfer protocols. The implementation over InfiniBand improves small message latency up to 20%. The implementation adaptively falls back to the current method if the application does not benefit from the proposed technique. Finally, to improve scalability of MPI applications on ultra-scale clusters, I have proposed an extension to the current iWARP standard. The extension improves performance and memory usage for large-scale clusters. The extension equips Ethernet with an efficient zero-copy, connection-less datagram transport. The software-level evaluation shows more than 40% performance benefits and 30% memory usage reduction for MPI applications on a 64-core cluster. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2010-10-16 12:25:18.388

This thesis involves modeling, design, Hardware Description Language (HDL) design capture, synthesis, implementation and HDL virtual prototype simulation validation of an interconnect network for a Hybrid Data/Command Driven Computer Architecture (HDCA) system. The HDCA is a single-chip shared memory multiprocessor architecture system. Various candidate processor-memory interconnect topologies that may meet the requirements of the HDCA system are studied and evaluated related to utilization within the HDCA system. It is determined that the Crossbar network topology best meets the HDCA system requirements and it is therefore used as the processormemory interconnect network of the HDCA system. The design capture, synthesis, implementation and HDL simulation is done in VHDL using XILINX ISE 6.2.3i and ModelSim 5.7g CAD softwares. The design is validated by individually testing against some possible test cases and then integrated into the HDCA system and validated against two different applications. The inclusion of crossbar switch in the HDCA architecture involved major modifications to the HDCA system and some minor changes in the design of the switch. Virtual Prototype testing of the HDCA executing applications when utilizing crossbar interconnect revealed proper functioning of the interconnect and HDCA. Inclusion of the interconnect into the HDCA now allows it to implement dynamic node level reconfigurability and multiple forking functionality.

Cette recherche porte sur les enjeux symboliques, artistiques et représentationnels liés à la démocratisation des appareils connectés. Car l’écran, désormais envisagé dans sa mobilité, fait non seulement office de fenêtre ouverte sur le monde (Alberti), mais plus encore, il compose un vaste paysage où le cyberespace, monde virtuel aujourd’hui à portée de tous, se combine avec un réel mis à distance, fragmenté, puis recomposé. Ainsi en va-t-il de nos trajectoires se dessinant sur Google Maps, de cette ville qui apparaît comme un nouveau texte à déchiffrer et sur laquelle les appareils connectés juxtaposent de nouvelles cartes. Dès lors se dessine, dans la frénésie informative que nous proposent ces objets techniques d’un nouveau genre, une vision de la technique participant de ce que Michel de Certeau appelait une ’sensibilité partagée’. Cette sensibilité, acquise à mesure que les dispositifs informatiques se sont perfectionnés, tisse de nouveaux réseaux d'associations entre l'individu et son milieu. Par conséquent, là où l’histoire et la théorie de l’art ont mis au jour un certain nombre de questions relatives à la surface, au cadre, au plan, la cybersensibilité actuelle s'inscrit dans une histoire non seulement technique, mais également optique. La ville, et sa symbolique du territoire, se présente non pas comme décor mais se donne à voir tel un terrain de jeu (sandbox) propice à de nouvelles explorations. Considérant ce maillage inédit de perspectives, nous garderons de la cybersensibilité sa formidable aptitude à reconsidérer le milieu urbain ou numérique suivant de multiples points de vue qui sont autant de nouvelles tactiques de nouvelles approches. / This research focuses on symbolic, artistic and representational issues linked to Web and connected systems, such as mobile phones and tablets. Because the screen, i.e. the monitor, is now considered in its mobility, it has to be perceived as a window opened toward the outside. However, the monitor also sketches a lanscape where cyberespace, beyond its logical nature, has to be combined with a reality that aftermath becomes fragmented and recomposed. This applies to the steps we spread while walking in the street, soon transcribed in data on our smartphone : from a simple walk to a track that edges into the city. In this context, city becomes a kind of text and digital artefacts participate to its rewriting, juxtaposing new maps. As city represents the fragmented and the multiple, cyberspace implies a vision of urbanity where man merges himself with technology in a specific way: virtual worlds, along with videogames, science-fiction litterature and movies bring us back to the cyberpunk movement, and before, with the ’shock’ of cities experienced during the modernity by Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin. This chaos of senses, space and time which defines modern cities is also typical of a technological power that tends to lead the society. Far from orwellian visions, the current advanded technology, although it appears crossed by political, technological and social matters, has to be situated in the context of cybersensbility. Actually in this era of networks and mature technology stands a new vision of technology that implies new practices, new attempts, and makes the cybersensibility concept tangible, as it is opposed to a passive conception in the use of technologies.

Orientador: Akobo Yamakani / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-21T21:57:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nadai_LucianoPintode_M.pdf: 8791907 bytes, checksum: 75065ce4c5827da2ca719ce3105eab97 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1996 / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta uma implementação formal e funcional da integração de LAN's com protocolos DQDB e redes ATM, baseado nas recomendações encontradas nas normas do CCITT. Concentramos nossa atenção em serviços com conexão não orientada e utilizamos a linguagem SDL para implementação virtual do procedimento proposto e posterior simulação, visando sua validação. Foi adotado o cenário direto para o suporte ao serviço não orientado à conexão em redes DQDB/ATM, implementando o elemento adaptador de protocolos(IWU) como bridge. Para isso, foi proposto um formato para o campo de endereços do quadro DQDB. Resultados das simulações de várias situações são apresentados com análises e comentários / Abstract: This work present a formal and functional implementation of DQDB-ATM LAN's integration, based on recomendations found in CCITT standards. We will treat connectionless services and the SDL language is used to implement and simulate the proposed procedures. Direct scenary has been adopted to support the connectionless services of the DQDB/ATM LAN'S, using the IWU element as a bridge. A suitable format has been proposed to the addressing field of the DQDB slot. Simulation results of several cases are analised and discussed. / Mestrado / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Lack of access to information on the cost and timeframe for the permitting and interconnection of distributed renewable energy generation facilities may hinder renewable energy capacity development. This issue is examined within the specific context of solar photovoltaic systems developed for participation in the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program hosted by the Marin Energy Authority (MEA). A guide on the permitting and interconnection of solar PV generators for participation in the program was produced for the host agency. This guide seeks to assist property owners and solar developers in overcoming existing informational challenges. By providing an overview of the procedural requirements and process, as well as reference tools that highlights helpful resources and documents, the guide provides readers with an introductory tool for overcoming existing non-market barriers to participation in the MEA FIT program. In addition, a Recommendations Report has also been produced to provide the MEA with a discussion of existing procedural challenges faced by program participants. This report, which details the issues identified by those stakeholders that participated in the development of the guide, concludes with a series of recommended actions that the MEA may take to enhance the ability of potential FIT participants to accurately estimate and plan for the costs and timeframes associated with permitting a solar PV facility.