Filmes finos depositados por plasma apresentam varias funções, como proteção de superfície e características de adsorção, úteis no desenvolvimento de sensores. Filmes finos a base de hexametildissilazana HMDS, podem dar origem a materiais adsorventes enquanto filmes fluorados, como os obtidos com metil-nonafluoro (iso)butil-éter HFE®, são bons para passivação e proteção de superfícies expostas a soluções ácidas e básicas. Este trabalho teve como objetivo geral a modificação desses filmes finos objetivando a melhoria na detecção de compostos orgânicos voláteis (VOCs) ou umidade. Os filmes tiveram sua superfície modificada por exposição à radiação beta (feixe de elétrons, 2 MeV, 10 nA a 100 nA) e a radiação ultravioleta (UVC) e foram testados em dispositivos miniaturizados. Foram utilizados dois equipamentos de plasma distintos para a produção dos filmes e vários substratos para deposição: lâminas de silício, cristais piezelétricos de quartzo e acrílico, principalmente. Uma série de caracterizações foi providenciada: Perfilometria (determinação de espessura); Elipsometria (medidas do índice de refração); Espectroscopia de Infravermelho e Espectroscopia de Fotoelétrons Por Raios X para análises da estrutura química; Microscopia Óptica e Eletrônica de Varredura para avaliação da resistência à irradiação UVC ou beta; Medidas de ângulo de contato para determinar a hidrofobicidade e a compatibilidade com VOCs; O software Imagej para a determinação e verificação da ocorrência de formação de aglomerados (clusters) e de suas dimensões. A partir dessas análises escolheram-se filmes com baixa incidência de clusters, para testes em dispositivo miniaturizado, e com alta incidência, para testes de detecção de VOCs ou água. Simulação, produção e testes de dispositivos miniaturizados simples e que favorecem a mistura de reagentes através das características de superfície (misturadores passivos) foi efetuada. O dispositivo testado mostrou-se útil em fase liquida para mistura tanto de líquidos miscíveis quanto imiscíveis. Filmes a base de HFE ou HMDS/HFE pode ser usados como camada passivadora, pois são resistentes à radiação beta, ou UVC. Filmes a base de HMDS sofrem reação por exposição à UVC, o que é útil na construção de dispositivos miniaturizados, ou mesmo detecção de água, dependendo do equipamento de plasma utilizado para deposição. / Plasma thin films present several functions, such as surface protection and adsorption, useful on sensor development. Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) thin films can produce adsorbent materials useful as sensitive layer whereas fluorinated films, such as methyl nonafluoro(iso)butyl ether HFE®, are quite useful for passivation and surface protection on acid and basic solutions. This work aims the modification of such films for improvement on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detection or water detection. The surface of such films was modified by exposure to beta (electron beam, 2 MeV, 10 nA to 100 nA) or ultraviolet (UVC) radiation. These films were also tested on miniaturized devices. Two different plasma- equipment were used and the main substrates for deposition were silicon wafer, piezoelectric quartz crystal and acrylics. The characterization procedures used: profilometer (thickness determination), ellipsometer (refractive index measurement); Infrared (FTIR) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for chemical structure analysis; Optical and scanning electron microscopy for evaluation of resistance to exposition to ultraviolet light or beta radiation; contact angle measurements for determination of hydrophobicity and adsorption of VOCs; Imagej software for evaluation of cluster formation and size. Based on such measurements low density cluster films were tested on a miniaturized device and high density cluster films were used for tests of water and VOCs detection. The simulation, production and tests of simple miniaturized structure that favors mixing were carried out. The conception of the manufactured device is based on passive mixers and mixing was improved to miscible and immiscible fluids as well by changing the surfaces properties of plasma deposited thin films. HFE and HMDS/HFE films were useful as passivation layer, being resistant to beta and UVC radiation. HMDS are sensible to UVC, which was used for obtaining the miniaturized device and is useful to improve water detection, depending on plasma equipment utilized for deposition.

Filmes finos depositados por plasma apresentam varias funções, como proteção de superfície e características de adsorção, úteis no desenvolvimento de sensores. Filmes finos a base de hexametildissilazana HMDS, podem dar origem a materiais adsorventes enquanto filmes fluorados, como os obtidos com metil-nonafluoro (iso)butil-éter HFE®, são bons para passivação e proteção de superfícies expostas a soluções ácidas e básicas. Este trabalho teve como objetivo geral a modificação desses filmes finos objetivando a melhoria na detecção de compostos orgânicos voláteis (VOCs) ou umidade. Os filmes tiveram sua superfície modificada por exposição à radiação beta (feixe de elétrons, 2 MeV, 10 nA a 100 nA) e a radiação ultravioleta (UVC) e foram testados em dispositivos miniaturizados. Foram utilizados dois equipamentos de plasma distintos para a produção dos filmes e vários substratos para deposição: lâminas de silício, cristais piezelétricos de quartzo e acrílico, principalmente. Uma série de caracterizações foi providenciada: Perfilometria (determinação de espessura); Elipsometria (medidas do índice de refração); Espectroscopia de Infravermelho e Espectroscopia de Fotoelétrons Por Raios X para análises da estrutura química; Microscopia Óptica e Eletrônica de Varredura para avaliação da resistência à irradiação UVC ou beta; Medidas de ângulo de contato para determinar a hidrofobicidade e a compatibilidade com VOCs; O software Imagej para a determinação e verificação da ocorrência de formação de aglomerados (clusters) e de suas dimensões. A partir dessas análises escolheram-se filmes com baixa incidência de clusters, para testes em dispositivo miniaturizado, e com alta incidência, para testes de detecção de VOCs ou água. Simulação, produção e testes de dispositivos miniaturizados simples e que favorecem a mistura de reagentes através das características de superfície (misturadores passivos) foi efetuada. O dispositivo testado mostrou-se útil em fase liquida para mistura tanto de líquidos miscíveis quanto imiscíveis. Filmes a base de HFE ou HMDS/HFE pode ser usados como camada passivadora, pois são resistentes à radiação beta, ou UVC. Filmes a base de HMDS sofrem reação por exposição à UVC, o que é útil na construção de dispositivos miniaturizados, ou mesmo detecção de água, dependendo do equipamento de plasma utilizado para deposição. / Plasma thin films present several functions, such as surface protection and adsorption, useful on sensor development. Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) thin films can produce adsorbent materials useful as sensitive layer whereas fluorinated films, such as methyl nonafluoro(iso)butyl ether HFE®, are quite useful for passivation and surface protection on acid and basic solutions. This work aims the modification of such films for improvement on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detection or water detection. The surface of such films was modified by exposure to beta (electron beam, 2 MeV, 10 nA to 100 nA) or ultraviolet (UVC) radiation. These films were also tested on miniaturized devices. Two different plasma- equipment were used and the main substrates for deposition were silicon wafer, piezoelectric quartz crystal and acrylics. The characterization procedures used: profilometer (thickness determination), ellipsometer (refractive index measurement); Infrared (FTIR) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for chemical structure analysis; Optical and scanning electron microscopy for evaluation of resistance to exposition to ultraviolet light or beta radiation; contact angle measurements for determination of hydrophobicity and adsorption of VOCs; Imagej software for evaluation of cluster formation and size. Based on such measurements low density cluster films were tested on a miniaturized device and high density cluster films were used for tests of water and VOCs detection. The simulation, production and tests of simple miniaturized structure that favors mixing were carried out. The conception of the manufactured device is based on passive mixers and mixing was improved to miscible and immiscible fluids as well by changing the surfaces properties of plasma deposited thin films. HFE and HMDS/HFE films were useful as passivation layer, being resistant to beta and UVC radiation. HMDS are sensible to UVC, which was used for obtaining the miniaturized device and is useful to improve water detection, depending on plasma equipment utilized for deposition.

The aim of this thesis work has been to investigate how miniaturization, such as microsystems technology, can potentially increase the scientific throughput in exploration of hard-to-reach underwater environments, such as the subglacial lakes of Antarctica, or other challenging environments, including cave systems and wrecks. A number of instruments and subsystems applicable to miniature submersibles have been developed and studied, and their potential to provide a high functionality density for size-restricted exploration platforms has been assessed. To provide an onboard camera system with measurement capabilities, simulation and design tools for diffractive optics were developed, and microoptics realized to project reference patterns onto objects to reveal their topography. The influence of murky water on the measurement accuracy was also studied. For longer-range mapping of the surroundings, and under conditions with even less visibility, the performance of a very small, high-frequency side-scanning sonar was investigated using extensive modeling and physical testing. In particular, the interference on the acoustic beam from tight mounting in a hull was investigated. A range in excess of 30 m and centimeter resolution were obtained. Besides these systems, which can be used to navigate and map environments, a two-dimensional, thermal sensor for minute flows was developed. Measuring speed and direction of water flows, this sensor can aid in the general classification of the environment and also monitor the submersible’s movement. As the flow of waters in subglacial lakes is estimated to be minute, the detection limit and sensitivity were investigated. Measurements of water properties are facilitated by the chip-based conductivity, temperature, and depth sensor system developed. Macroscopically, this is an essential oceanographic instrument with which salinity is determined. Contrary to what was expected, MHz frequencies proved to be advantageous for conductivity measurements. Finally, sampling of water using an acoustically enriching microdevice, and even enabling return of pristine samples via the use of integrated latchable, high-pressure valves, was realized and evaluated. Particularly, investigations of the device’s ability to capture and hold on to microorganisms, were conducted. Further developed and studied, these devices – as subsystems to miniature submersibles, or as stand-alone instruments – should enable exploration of previously unreachable submerged environments. / Deeper Access, Deeper Understanding (DADU)

Therapeutic ultrasound has become a topic of growing interest in ophthalmology. High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for the treatment of glaucoma and ultrasound (US) drug delivery are the two main areas of research in this field. This work addresses these domains in two separate parts: transscleral ultrasound drug delivery (USDD), and infrared (IR) field characterization of an ophthalmic HIFU device for glaucoma treatment. The sclera is a promising pathway for ocular drug delivery, since transscleral administration can address both the anterior and posterior segments of the eye. Due to the low permeability however, efficient drug delivery is challenging. In this study, HIFU was investigated as a potential modality for an enhanced transscleral drug delivery (in vitro). Among US effects, cavitation was shown to be the major contributor to an enhanced USDD. A pulsed US protocol designed to maximum cavitation activity may therefore be a viable method for enhancing ocular drug delivery. In the second part, a new method of ultrasonic field characterization was developed for a multi-element HIFU device. This system is designed and produced for glaucoma treatment by Eyetechcare Company (Rillieux-la-Pape, France). The traditional hydrophone method for field characterization was prohibitively slow on an industrial scale. An alternative modality for rapid qualitative assessment of the intensity distribution based on infra-red (IR) thermography was developed specific to this high frequency (19-21 MHz) device with line-focus US radiators. The second part of the study was aimed to expand the application of a R&D technique for ultrasonic field characterization to an industrial scale

This master´s thesis deals with the evaluation of fracture behavior of ODS steel MA956 at high temperature range. This behavior was tested by using miniaturized CT specimens, on which were performed experiments to measure of ductile crack growth resistance curves (J-R curves). The value of the fracture toughness was determined from these J-R curves. Fracture properties were consequently evaluated by using fractographic analysis of the fracture surfaces. Structural properties of material was identified by hardness measurement and analyzed by metallographic methods. Results of the measurements show drop of the fracture toughness with respect to the increasing temperature.

La recherche de nouveaux matériaux a permis de nouveaux développements au cours de ces dernières décennies. Ce sont entre autres les diélectriques artificiels ou encore les métamatériaux. Cependant, si ces matériaux restent passifs, malgré tous les développements possibles, les performances des antennes, ou autres structures électromagnétiques qui découlent d’eux seront toujours confrontés aux mêmes limitations fondamentales. En intégrant des circuits actifs dans ces matériaux, par exemple des résistances négatives, des capacités négatives et des inductances négatives, il est possible de dépasser ces limitations ainsi les propriétés synthétisables et les applications d’ingénierie pourront être significativement élargies. En effet, cela permettrait de créer des matériaux et des dispositifs dont les propriétés ne seront pas possibles autrement et surpasseraient celles des matériaux existant dans la nature. Cette thèse a été l’occasion dans un premier temps d’utiliser les circuits non-Foster qui sont des circuits à rétroaction actif, pour l’adaptation d’une antenne électriquement petite à basses fréquence. Ceci a permis de mettre en évidence ses avantages par rapport à une adaptation passive plus conventionnelle.Ensuite, des capacités négatives ainsi que des inductances négatives et positives ont été conçues. Leur fonctionnement totalement différent des composants passifs a été mis en exergue. Ce qui nous a conduit à les appliquer sur des structures périodiques. Cela a donné des résultats intéressants comme la propagation supraluminique sur une ligne de transmission des ondes. Et en les appliquant à la cellule unitaire d’une surface de métamatériaux qui est aussi une structure périodique, sa taille est réduite pour une plus grande compacité des antennes à cavités conçues pour les basses fréquences où la longueur d’onde est très grande. / The search of new materials has enabled new developments in recent decades. Among these are artificial or dielectric metamaterials. However, if these materials are passive, despite all the possible developments, the antennas performances or other structures resulting from them will still face the same fundamental limitations. By adding active circuits in these materials, such as negative resistors, negatives capacitors and negative inductors, it is possible to overcome these limitations and the synthesized properties and engineering applications can be significantly expanded. Indeed, this would create materials and devices with properties which can allow us to obtain behavior nonexistent in nature. This open the way to new applications. In this thesis, we explore the opportunity at first to use non-Foster circuits that are active feedback circuit, in the matching network of an electrically small antenna for low frequency operation. This helped to highlight its advantages over more conventional passive matching. Then, negative capacitors and negative and positive inductors were fabricated. Their totally different behaviors with passive components were also highlighted. This led us to apply them on periodic structures. Interesting results were obtained as superluminal wave propagation on a transmission line. And by applying to the unit cell of a metamaterial surface which is also a periodic structure, the size is reduced to a more compact cavity antennas designed for low frequency where the wavelength is very large.

No description available.

In the last decades, miniaturized flow chemistry has promised to bring the benefits of process intensification, continuous manufacturing and greener chemistry to the fine chemical industry. However, miniaturized catalytic processes where gas, liquid, and solids are involved have always been impeded by two main drawbacks: multiphase-flow maldistribution (i.e. gas channeling) and clogging of capillary reactors. In this thesis, first principle models have been used to capture the complexity of multiphase flow in micropacked-bed reactors, which can suffer from poor and unpredictable mass-transfer performance. When the particle size ranges 100 µm in diameter, capillary and viscous forces control the hydrodynamics. Under such conditions, the gas —and not the liquid— flows creating preferential channels that cause poor radial dispersion. Experimental observations from the literature were reproduced to validate a physical-based modeling approach, the Phase Field Method (PFM). This simulation strategy sheds light on the impact of the micropacked-bed geometry and wettability on the formation of preferential gas channels. Counterintuitively, to homogenize the two-phase flow hydrodynamics and reduce radial mass-transfer limitations, solvent wettability of the support needs to be restricted, showing best performance when the contact angle ranges 60° and capillary forces are still dominant. Visualization experiments showed that ultrasound irradiation can also be used to partially fluidized the bed and modify the hydrodynamics. Under sonication, residence time distributions (RTD) in micropacked-bed reactors revealed a two-order-of-magnitude reduction in dispersion, allowing for nearly plug-flow behavior at high gas and liquid flow rates. At a reduced scale, surfaces vibrating with a low amplitude were shown to fluidize, prevent and solve capillary tube blockage problems, which are commonly found in the fine chemical industry for continuous product synthesis. The modeling and simulation strategy used in this thesis, enables a fast prototyping methodology for the proper acoustic design of sonoreactors, whose scale-up was achieved by introducing slits in sonotrodes. In addition, a patent-pending helicoidal capillary sonoreactor has shown to transform longitudinal vibrating modes into radial and torsional modes, pioneering a new range of chemistry able to handle a high concentration of particles. The contributions of this thesis made in the fields of reaction engineering and process intensification have demonstrated how computational methods and experimental techniques in other areas of research can be used to foster innovation at a fast pace.

No description available.

La demande de transmissions à débits de plus en plus élevés s’accentue davantage avec l’essor de nouveaux services dans les réseaux de communication sans fils. Pour répondre à cette demande, une solution consiste à augmenter la capacité de transmission du canal radiofréquence entre la station de base et le terminal portatif. Ceci peut être réalisé en augmentant le nombre d’éléments rayonnant impliqués à l’émission et à la réception de cette liaison radiofréquence : on parle alors de technique MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output). Cette thèse porte principalement sur la conception, l’optimisation et la caractérisation de systèmes multi-antennaires pour techniques de diversité et MIMO en bandes LTE (Long Term Evolution). Trois prototypes multi-bandes sont proposés dont deux systèmes planaires et un système d’antennes IFAs compactes. De nouvelles solutions multi-bandes et l’influence de la position de l’antenne sur le plan de masse sont étudiées pour réaliser de la diversité spatiale, de polarisation et de diagramme de rayonnement avec une faible corrélation entre les signaux reçus sur chaque antenne mais surtout une bonne efficacité totale. Une ligne de neutralisation est utilisée pour isoler les antennes et un fonctionnement multi-bande est réalisé. L’impédance d’entrée des antennes est étudiée avec la méthode de Youla & Carlin afin d’améliorer la bande passante de la structure compacte de type IFA. Les performances en diversité et en MIMO de ces systèmes sont évaluées dans différents environnements de propagation. Elles montrent que ces systèmes peuvent être utilisés efficacement pour des applications en diversité et MIMO. / The transmission demand for increasing data rate becomes more and more important with the development of new services in radio communication networks. To answer to this demand, one solution consists in increasing the transmission capacity of the radio channel between the base station and the handset terminal. This can be realized by increasing the number of radiating elements involved in the transmission and the reception of this radio link: we talk about MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technique. The work realized in this thesis concerns mainly design, optimization and characterization of multi-antenna systems for MIMO and diversity techniques in LTE (Long Term Evolution) bands. Three multi bands prototypes are proposed whose two planar systems and one compact IFAs antennas system. News multiband solution and antenna position influence on the PCB were studied to realize spatial, polarization and pattern diversity with low correlation between received signals on each antenna and a good efficiency. The neutralization line was used for antennas isolation and its application in multiband was realized. The antenna load impedance has been studied with Youla & Carlin method in order to improve the frequency bandwidth of the compact IFA structure. Diversity and MIMO performances of these systems were evaluated in different propagation environments. They show that these systems can be effectively used for diversity and MIMO application.