Ternary content addressable memories (TCAMs) are hardware-based parallel lookup tables with bit-level masking capability. They are attractive for applications such as packet forwarding and classification in network routers. Despite the attractive features of TCAMs, high power consumption is one of the most critical challenges faced by TCAM designers. This work proposes circuit techniques for reducing TCAM power consumption. The main contribution of this work is divided in two parts: (i) reduction in match line (ML) sensing energy, and (ii) static-power reduction techniques. The ML sensing energy is reduced by employing (i) positive-feedback ML sense amplifiers (MLSAs), (ii) low-capacitance comparison logic, and (iii) low-power ML-segmentation techniques. The positive-feedback MLSAs include both resistive and active feedback to reduce the ML sensing energy. A body-bias technique can further improve the feedback action at the expense of additional area and ML capacitance. The measurement results of the active-feedback MLSA show 50-56% reduction in ML sensing energy. The measurement results of the proposed low-capacitance comparison logic show 25% and 42% reductions in ML sensing energy and time, respectively, which can further be improved by careful layout. The low-power ML-segmentation techniques include dual ML TCAM and charge-shared ML. Simulation results of the dual ML TCAM that connects two sides of the comparison logic to two ML segments for sequential sensing show 43% power savings for a small (4%) trade-off in the search speed. The charge-shared ML scheme achieves power savings by partial recycling of the charge stored in the first ML segment. Chip measurement results show that the charge-shared ML scheme results in 11% and 9% reductions in ML sensing time and energy, respectively, which can be improved to 19-25% by using a digitally controlled charge sharing time-window and a slightly modified MLSA. The static power reduction is achieved by a dual-VDD technique and low-leakage TCAM cells. The dual-VDD technique trades-off the excess noise margin of MLSA for smaller cell leakage by applying a smaller VDD to TCAM cells and a larger VDD to the peripheral circuits. The low-leakage TCAM cells trade off the speed of READ and WRITE operations for smaller cell area and leakage. Finally, design and testing of a complete TCAM chip are presented, and compared with other published designs.

The focus of the presented research is to examine the fundamental physics and chemistry of low-energy electron-stimulated reactions on adsorbate covered single crystal surfaces. Specifically, condensed SiCl₄ on the Si(111) surface and condensed H₂O on the TiO₂ (110) surface have been studied. By varying adsorbate film thicknesses, the coupling strength of the target molecule to the substrate and surrounding media dictates the progression of the electron induced reactions. To investigate the electron interactions with SiCl₄ on the Si(111) surface, desorbing cations and neutrals were detected via time of flight mass spectrometry (ToF-MS) where neutral chlorine atoms were ionized using a resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) technique. Structure in the cation and neutral yields were assigned to molecular excitations. At an incident electron energy of 10 eV, a resonance structure in the neutral yields was attributed to a negative ion resonance and observed in thick and thin films of SiCl₄. With monoenergetic electrons, specific surface reactions can be controlled which have implications for film growth, surface patterning and masking, and etching. For the H₂O/TiO₂ (110) system, the water interactions with the TiO₂ surface are revealed through the strong electron induced reaction dependencies on the water coverage. Understanding the nonthermal reaction landscape of H₂O on the TiO₂ (110) surface is crucial for developing the system as a catalytic source of hydrogen. The electron-stimulated oxidation of the TiO₂ (110) surface and electron induced sputtering of H ₂O was investigated. Irradiation of water films ([coverage]< 3 ML) oxidized the TiO₂ (110) surface similarly as surface oxidation via O₂ deposition. Each H₂O molecule in the first monolayer seems to be a target for the incoming electron initiating the oxidation. However, water coverages greater than a monolayer limited the oxidation process. The electron-stimulated desorption and sputtering yields of water from the TiO₂ (110) surface were measured as a function of water coverage. Surprisingly, the amount of water sputtered from the surface is nonlinearly dependent on water coverage.

This study is dedicated to give a production route for a kind of low energy cement called alinite cement using the waste material of soda industry as the main raw material. Soda solid waste, clay and minor amount of iron ore were mixed with certain quantities and burned at six different burning temperatures of 1050, 1100, 1150, 1200, 1350, and 1450 &ordm / C. The resultant clinkers were investigated by mineralogical and chemical analysis. Mineralogical analyses were performed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technique. XRD analyses revealed the formation of alinite phase in the clinkers. Chemical analyses were performed by X-Ray Fluorescence spectroscopy technique and by wet chemical analysis. Especially, free lime content of the clinkers was searched and an optimum burning temperature was determined. In order to find the compressive strength of the alinite cement, larger amounts of alinite clinker were manufactured in wet rod shape raw mix in a laboratory type of furnace at 1200, 1350 and 1450 &ordm / C. The results have shown that forming alinite phase requires ~6wt % chlorine. Alinite clinker is obtained using soda waste at the temperature range between 1050 and 1200 &ordm / C. However, the free CaO becomes much lower as 0.12 at 1200 &ordm / C. Moreover, a lime saturation factor of 76, which is lower than ordinary Portland clinker is obtained. Satisfactory compressive strength was achieved by gypsum addition.

<p>Syftet med vårt examensarbete är att undersöka hur passivhus eller så kallade nollenergihus skiljer sig i funktion samt uppbyggnad från konventionella hus.</p><p>I vår undersökning tar vi upp hur utformning, orientering, material samt ett väl fungerande klimatskal påverkar energiförbrukningen.</p><p>Vi har tittat närmare på faktorer som sparar energi samt hur ett typiskt passivhus är uppbyggt. För att se hur teorin fungerar i praktiken har vi tittat närmare på befintliga passivhus, nämligen de på Oxtorget i Värnamo.</p><p>Vi har kommit fram till att passivhus fungerar och vi anser det som väldigt viktigt att man fortsätter driva fram arbetet och informera om dess betydelse för miljön.</p><p>Passivhus blir mer och mer uppmärksammat. De är något dyrare att bygga, men man tjänar in det i längden. Lönsamheten är dock inte det viktigaste utan känslan av att man gör något bra för miljön.</p> / <p>The main purpose with our diploma work is to examine how passive houses or so called zero energy houses differ in function and construction compared to conventional houses. In our research we present different things such design, orientation, materials and how a fully functional climate shell affects the energy consumption.</p><p>We’ve looked closer at some factors that save energy and how a typical passive house is constructed. To see how theory works in practice we have looked at existing passive houses, and that is the passive houses on Oxtorget in Värnamo.</p><p>We have come to the conclusion that the passive houses works and we believe that it is very important that we continues to carry on the work and inform people about its importance to the environment. Passive houses are becoming more and more noticed. They are somewhat more expensive to build but in time you will earn the money spent back. The profit is not the most important but the feeling that you do something good for the environment.</p>

In the U.S. and other developed countries, humans spend the vast majority of their time within the built environment. As a result, a substantial portion of our collective exposure to airborne pollutants, even those of outdoor origin, occurs in indoor environments. In addition, building construction materials and operational practices are changing as we endeavor to reduce the energy burden of the built environment. These changes result in barriers and opportunities in mitigating exposure to indoor pollutants and the accompanying implications for human health. This dissertation advances knowledge regarding low-energy control of indoor ozone. Ozone is often considered a pollutant of outdoor concern. However, ozone in indoor environments presents important challenges regarding exposure, intake, and chemistry in the built environment. The investigations in this dissertation extend the state understanding of indoor transport and transformation of ozone, and the potential for using material-surface interactions in buildings to suppress concentrations of indoor ozone. The first objective relates to the determination of magnitudes of ozone removal and product emissions at room or building scales. This objective provides new data on reactive uptake and product generation in large-scale environments, develops Monte Carlo models describing indoor ozone removal by materials in homes, and compares active and passive methods of indoor ozone removal. The second objective addresses the need to develop improved air cleaning materials through experiments and modeling that address material-ozone reactions in porous materials. This objective advances the state of modeling heterogeneous reactive uptake of ozone by characterizing material physical properties and transport phenomena, determining their impact on ozone removal, and using these data to develop a more mechanistic model of material-ozone reactions. Ultimately, these investigations advance the engineering concepts that support the development of passive indoor pollutant controls, an important tool for reducing concentrations of indoor pollutants while supporting low-energy building initiatives. The combination of experimental characterization of ozone deposition velocities and product emission rates, whole-building Monte Carlo modeling, and mechanistic material/pollutant models provide important new data and approaches that expand the state of knowledge of the fate and transport of reactive pollutants in indoor environments. / text

On-line monitoring is an important challenge in future biotechnology applications, for instance in the domain of precision livestock farming, there is need for low-cost intelligent sensors to monitor animal welfare. The common way of observing a living organism is usually done by audio-visual ways performed by a human being, who is present on the scene. This method is, however, subjective, expensive, error prone and time consuming. Instead of performing an animal observation by a human being, automated objective surveillance, by means of low cost intelligent image sensors, can be used. With the use of cheap image sensors and with the help of image analysis techniques, an automated, objective, contact-less monitoring method of the behavior of the living organisms can be provided. Much knowledge has been obtained in the development and use of image analysis algorithms to automatically quantify body features of animals, their activity rate and their behavior. Such an automatic image analysis algorithm is combined with on-line modeling techniques in order to develop an application for the recognition of several behavioral phenotypes of laying hens. The procedure is divided in two phases, where an automatic computer vision algorithm detects the monitoring object from images captured by a video camera, and then another algorithm tracks the detected object through successive frames. Further work is required to integrate these algorithms into low-cost low-energy processing platforms, including embedded systems or even wearable devices. Only then, this important biotechnology development will lead to economically applicable solutions. The challenge of the present thesis especially includes the exploration of ultra-low energy implementation platforms of this biotechnology application. The initial application is developed in the MATLAB environment and is converted to C programming language. Dynamic range and precision analysis are performed to efficiently determine the required fixed-point word-lengths of the application’s variables. Finally, platform-independent and platform-dependent code transformations and integration of the algorithm to different ASIPs (Application Specific Instruction Processors) architectures are applied in order to achieve ultimate low energy consumption. / Η On-line παρακολούθηση αποτελεί μια σημαντική πρόκληση στις μελλοντικές βιοτεχνολογικές εφαρμογές, όπως παραδείγματος χάριν στον τομέα της κτηνοτροφίας, όπου είναι επιτακτική η ανάγκη χρήσης χαμηλού κόστους έξυπνων αισθητήρων στην παρακολούθηση της ευημερίας των ζωντανών οργανισμών. Ο συνήθης τρόπος παρακο-λούθησης ενός ζωντανού οργανισμού συνίσταται στη χρήση οπτικοακουστικών μέσων, τα οποία χειρίζεται ο ανθρώπινος παράγοντας που είναι παρόν. Η μέθοδος αυτή είναι κατά κύριο λόγο υποκειμενική, ακριβή, επιρρεπής σε σφάλματα και επιπροσθέτως χρονοβόρα. Αντ’ αυτού είναι δυνατό να εφαρμοσθεί μια αυτοματοποιημένη αντι-κειμενική επιτήρηση, η οποία λαμβάνει χώρα μέσω χαμηλού κόστους έξυπνων αισθητήρων εικόνας. Η χρήση των αισθητήρων, σε συνδυασμό με τη βοήθεια τεχνικών ανάλυσης εικόνας, παράγει μια αυτόματη αντικειμενική και εξ’ αποστάσεως μέθοδο πα-ρακολούθησης της συμπεριφοράς των ζωντανών οργανισμών. Τα τελευταία χρόνια η τεχνογνωσία στην ανάπτυξη και τη χρήση αλγορίθμων επεξεργασίας εικόνας, οι οποίοι εντοπίζουν αυτόματα τα χαρακτηριστικά των σωμάτων των ζωντανών οργανισμών, το ποσοστό δραστηριότητάς τους, καθώς και την συμπε-ριφορά τους, αναπτύσσεται ραγδαία. Ένας τέτοιος αλγόριθμος συνδυάζεται με on-line τεχνικές μοντελοποίησης αποσκοπώντας στην αναγνώριση διαφόρων φαινοτύπων συ-μπεριφοράς των ορνίθων. Η διαδικασία χωρίζεται σε δύο φάσεις, όπου κατά την πρώτη ένας αλγόριθμος με υπολογιστική όραση ανιχνεύει το αντικέιμενο παρακολούθησης από εικόνες που προέρχονται από μια κάμερα παρακολούθησης, και κατά τη δεύτερη ένας αλγόριθμος εντοπισμού αναλαμβάνει την παρακολούθηση του αντικειμένου σε δια-δοχικές εικόνες. Ακολούθως, είναι επιτακτική η υλοποίηση των αλγορίθμων σε χαμηλού κόστους χαμηλής κατανάλωσης πλατφόρμες επεξεργασίας, οι οποίες μπορούν να περιλαμβάνουν ενσωματωμένα ή ακόμα και ασύρματα συστήματα, ούτως ώστε η σημαντική αυτή βιοτεχνολογική ανάπτυξη να οδηγήσει σε οικονομικά εφικτές λύσεις. Η παρούσα μελέτη ανταπεξέρχεται στην πρόκληση της εξερεύνησης χαμηλής κατανάλωσης υλοποίησεων της βιοτεχνολογικής αυτής εφαρμογής. Η εφαρμογή έχει αναπτυχθεί σε υπολογιστικό περιβάλλον Matlab και εν συνεχεία ακολουθεί η μετάφρασή της σε C προγραμματιστική γλώσσα. Επιπρόσθετα, εφαρ-μόσθηκε δυναμική ανάλυση του εύρους και ανάλυση της ακρίβειας των μεταβλητών, με στόχο τον προσδιορισμό των μηκών των fixed point λέξεων. Εν κατακλείδι, πραγμα-τοποιήθηκαν platform-independent και platform-dependent μετασχηματισμοί της εφαρμογής και υλοποιείται σε διαφορετικές ASIP αρχιτεκτονικές αποσκοπώντας στην επίτευξη χαμηλής κατανάλωσης ενέργειας.

Low energy (tens of eV) polyatomic cations were used as probes for characterization of monolayers of spontaneously chemisorbed thiols on gold. Characteristics including chemical composition, surface order and orientation of the self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) can be derived by monitoring the products of projectile ion neutralization, surface-induced dissociation (SID), and ion-surface reactions.To study the influence of the terminal group chemical structures and orientations of the SAMs on ion-surface interactions, a series of semi-fluorinated alkane thiols with difluoromethylenes buried underneath hydrocarbon terminal groups were examined (CH3CF2CH2− and CH3CH2CF2−). Compared to terminally fluorinated SAMs, they showed more projectile ion neutralization and less internal to vibrational energy deposition into precursor ions. Projectile ion-hydrocarbon reactions decreased significantly when difluoromethylenes are one or two bonds away from the terminal group. Furthermore, ion-surface reaction results on surfaces with odd and even chain lengths suggested that they have similar terminal methyl orientations to their hydrocarbon counterparts.Mixed monolayers of CF3CF2(CH2)14SH (F-SAMs) and CH3(CH2)15SH (H-SAMs) with systematically changing electron transfer, energy deposition and ion-surface reaction were prepared using mixed thiols solution and micro-contact printing (μ-CP). The solution mixture system showed linear variations in electron transfer and energy deposition with different F-SAM surface concentrations, while non-linear changes occur for ion-surface reaction suggesting strong lateral interactions between the two components. These interactions are minimized in the μ-CP system containing domains of each thiol. Energy deposition on the patterned surfaces varies non-linearly with changing F-SAM concentration which differs from the homogenously mixed system.To explore SID with a 90 collision angle, eV SID of a series of protonated peptide ions were performed in an in-line sector Time-Of-Flight (TOF) mass spectrometer. The results were compared to keV collision-induced dissociation (CID) data collected with the same instrument. Fragmentation efficiency for SID was higher than CID for those peptides. In addition to the excellent control over laboratory collision energies with SID, different amount of energy deposition can be achieved when varying surface composition, e.g. using mixed F-SAM/H-SAM.Reactive ion scattering spectrometry (RISS) results provided more in-depth knowledge of low energy ion-surface interactions that will promote usage of RISS as a novel surface characterization technique.

The present state of modeling radio-induced effects at the cellular level neglects to account for the microscopic inhomogeneity of the nucleus from the non-aqueous contents by approximating the entire cellular nucleus as a homogenous medium of water. Charged particle track-structure calculations utilizing this principle of superposition are thereby neglecting to account for approximately 30% of the molecular variation within the nucleus. To truly understand what happens when biological matter is irradiated, charged particle track-structure calculations need detailed knowledge of the secondary electron cascade, resulting from interactions with not only the primary biological component – water – but also the non-aqueous contents, down to very low energies. This paper presents developments for a novel approach, which to our knowledge has never been done before, to reducing the homogenous water approximation. The purpose of our work is to develop of a completely self-consistent computational method for predicting molecule-specific ionization, excitation, and scattering cross sections in the very low energy regime that can be applied in a condensed history Monte Carlo track-structure code. The present methodology begins with the calculation of a solution to the many-body Schrödinger equation and proceeds to use Monte Carlo methods to calculate the perturbations in the internal electron field to determine the aforementioned processes. Results are computed for molecular water in the form of linear energy loss, secondary electron energies, and ionization-to-excitation ratios and compared against the low energy predictions of the GEANT4-DNA physics package of the Geant4 simulation toolkit.

Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjamas mažaenergis administracinis pastatas ir AEI panaudojimo jame galimybės Lietuvos meteorologinėmis sąlygomis. Naudojant modeliavimo priemonę TRNSYS sukuriami mažaenerginio administracinio pastato bei AEI sistemų skaičiavimo – valdymo modeliai: saulės kolektoriai, foto elementai, vėjo jėgainės, šilumos siurbliai, imantys šilumą iš grunto bei oro. Atlikus modeliavimą gauti pastato energijos suvartojimai šildymui (54 kWh/m2), vėsinimui (20 kWh/m2) bei elektros (48 kWh/m2). Metiniame pastato energijos balanse, energija pagaminta iš AEI gali padengti 56,6% reikalingos šiluminės energijos, 102,9 % energijos reikalingos vėsinimui ir 4,5 % reikalingo elektros kiekio. Pastato energijos poreikių jautrumo analizė atliekiama 3 pastato variantams. Pastebėta, kad esant didesniam stiklinių atitvarų plotui pietinėje pastato pusėje pagamintas šilumos kiekis iš AEI gali padengti net 85 % pastatui reikalingo šilumos kiekio. Tačiau beveik du kartus išaugo energijos poreikis pastato vėsinimui. Mažiausias vėsinimo kiekis reikalingas stačiakampio ploto pastatui. Apibendrinus rezultatus, pateiktos išvados ir rekomendacijos. Darbą sudaro 5 dalys: įvadas, 5 skyriai, išvados ir rekomendacijos, literatūros sąrašas. Darbo apimtis – 63 p. teksto be priedų, 31 iliustr., 16 lent., 27 bibliografiniai šaltiniai. Atskirai pridedami darbo priedai. / Thesis examined low energy office building and possibilities of renewable energy use in it by Lithuanian meteorology conditions. Using TRNSYS simulation tool the computing-control models for low energy office building and renewable energy systems (RES) (solar collectors, photovoltaic, wind turbines and heat pumps taking the heat from the soil and air) are created. After the simulation buildings’ energy consumption for heating (54kWh/m2), cooling (20 kWh/m2) and electricity (48 kWh/m2) were obtained. The annual building energy balance: an energy produced from RES can cover 56.6 % of the necessary thermal energy, 102.9 % of the energy required for cooling and 4.5 % required for electricity generation. The buildings’ energy demand sensitivity analysis is performed for three buildings’ variants. It is observed that of a larger area of the glass envelope of the building in southern direction the amount of heat produced from RES can cover up to 85% of the building required heat. However, almost twice rises electricity demand in cooling of the building. The minimum amount of cooling is required for a rectangular area building. Summarizing the results, conclusions and recommendations are presented. The work consists of 5 parts: introduction, 5 chapters, conclusions and recommendations, references. Work size – 63 pages without appendices, 31 figures, 16 tables, 27 references. Appendices.

GPS is widely used for localization and tracking, however traditional GPS receivers consume too much energy for many applications. This thesis implements and evaluates the performance of a low energy GPS solution, including a working hardware prototype, that reduces energy consumption significantly. The prototype operates for 2 years on a coin cell battery, sampling every minute. The corresponding time for a traditional receiver is 2 days. The main difference is that a traditional receiver requires 30 seconds of data to estimate a position; this solution only requires 2 milliseconds of data, a reduction of a factor 15 000. The solution consists of a portable device, sampling the GPS signal, and server software that utilizes Doppler navigation and Coarse Time Navigation to estimate positions. The median positioning error is at most 38 meters in our tests. We expect that this solution will enable positioning for billions of devices in the near future.