L’analyse des gaz d’échappement des moteurs à combustion interne a été traditionnellement réalisée en laboratoires en utilisant des analyseurs de gaz en vrac avec des équipements coûteux. Afin de créer un système capable de réaliser le travail de ces analyseurs, un capteur pouvant détecter plusieurs gaz simultanément est indispensable pour en mesurer la concentration. En effet, utiliser un capteur pour chaque gaz est couteux et peut amener à des procédures complexes d’analyse en raison des différentes technologies utilisées. De plus, l’utilisation de multiples capteurs donne lieu à une perte de ressources financières et humaines. Pour pallier ce problème, une approche alternative proposée dans cette thèse consiste à utiliser un seul capteur pour l’analyse simultanée des différents gaz. Cette approche contribue à réduire la complexité des analyses, la taille et la collecte de données des mesures de gaz mentionnés précédemment. Elle permet également la baisse du coût de l’ensemble du système des mesures.Cette thèse présente la conception, la méthodologie et le développement d’une nouvelle approche pour la mesure de la concentration de gaz utilisant le traitement d’images numériques à travers la modélisation du mélange des couleurs d’émission de lumière dans le tube de décharge de gaz. L’application du modèle inverse permet d’obtenir le pourcentage de chaque gaz dans un mélange contenant jusqu'à quatre gaz connaissant la couleur d’émission du mélange et la couleur d’émission de chaque gaz. Nous discutons aussi le potentiel de certaines méthodes quant à leurs propriétés de miniaturisation et leurs limites. Une comparaison entre les différents capteurs miniaturisés est réalisée en termes suivant la sensibilité, la sélectivité, le coût et d’autres conditions. Pour atteindre les objectifs de recherche, les problèmes techniques rencontrés tels que la modélisation de mélange des couleurs, l’étalonnage de capteurs pour l’acquisition d’images, et le traitement des erreurs de mesures ont été identifiés et des solutions ont été proposées. / Gases represent one of the most important key measurands in many industrial and domestic activities. The need to detect single gas or a group of gases at the same time varies from one application to another. One of the most important applications of gas sensing is in the concentration measurement of exhaust emissions in internal combustion engines. The variety of gases emitted by these engines and the necessity for a precise measurement of their concentrations are the major incentives for researchers to develop gas sensors that are not only limited to a certain type of gases but to a variety of gases. The most interest gases include CO, NO, NO2, NH4, SO2, CO2, CH4 and other hydrocarbons. These gases can be harmful to human health if present beyond a certain concentration. The analysis of exhaust emissions of internal combustion engines has traditionally been achieved in laboratories using bulk gas analyzers and costly equipments. In order to create a system which can do the work of these analyzers, a sensor that can measure the concentration of multiple gases at the same time is needed. Instead of using a sensor for each gas which is costly and introduce another complexity to the analysis procedure due to the different technologies that are used in the detection of different types of gases. This directly translates into loss of financial and human resources that could otherwise be productively used. In an effort to remedy this situation, this dissertation proposes an alternate approach that uses one sensor to analyze multiple gases simultaneously. This has a significant potential in reducing the aforementioned complexity, size and data collection tasks, and at the same time can lower the cost of the overall system.This dissertation presents the design, methodology, and development of a new method for gas concentration measurement using digital image processing through modeling the color mixing of light emissions in gas discharge tube. The application of the inverse model allows us to get the percentages of each gas in a mixture of up to four gases knowing already the color of emission of the whole mixture and the color of emission of each gas alone. It also discusses the miniaturization potential of some of the methods that are promising in the ability of their miniaturization but suffer from different problems. A comparison is also done among the miniaturized sensors in terms of different parameters like sensitivity, selectivity, cost and other terms. In achieving the research objectives, major technical challenges such as color mixing modeling, imaging sensor calibration, and measurements’ error handling have been successfully identified and addressed.

The growing markets for analytical techniques in areas such as pathogen detection, clinical analysis, forensic investigation, environmental analysis and food analysis require the development of devices with simultaneous high performance, speed, simplicity and low cost. Analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has been enhanced by use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, which is now a widely used tool for in vitro amplification of nucleic acids. In this work, a miniaturised PCR system comprising a microfluidic PCR chip, novel heating method and fluorescence detection unit was developed. PCR chip with reactants were shunted along three temperature zones in a fine polycarbonate chip. The polycarbonate PCR chip was fabricated using milling and thermal fusion binding for sealing of the cover. Thermal-cycling within the microfluidic chip was achieved by programmable shunting of the chip between three double side temperature zones with different temperatures to accomplish the denaturation, annealing and elongation steps necessary for PCR amplification. This thermal-cycling model potentially improves PCR efficacy because it increases the ramping rates for heating and cooling the PCR mixture. The detection unit comprises a photo-detector and Light Emitting Diode (LED) as the source of excitation. The detection limit of the system was determined on the PCR chip using Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) as a fluorophore dye. The detection limit achieved was 7.8 pg ml-1 or (19.7 pmol) of FITC. The chromosomal DNA used in this work was extracted from non-pathogenic K-12 subtype of Escherichia coli (E. coli). The investigations showed that the system was capable of performing PCR amplification with different annealing temperature ranging from 54 to 68 °C, targeting three different sizes of PCR products of 250, 552 and 1500 bp. The prototype thermal-cycler and PCR chip were used successfully to amplify the three sizes and the results were compared with same fragments amplified on a conventional PCR .thermal-cycler machine. The method used for comparison was gel electrophoresis. In addition, a fluorescence detection system was employed for detecting of PCR products using SYBR Green I fluorescent dye. The whole system allows for developments of low cost, easy to use and portable instruments.

De nombreux travaux de recherche sont actuellement menés afin de rendre les caméras infrarouges plus compactes et moins chères. En infrarouge refroidi, le défi est de proposer un système cryogénique compact pouvant être intégré sur un système à faible capacité d’emport tel qu’un drone. Dans ce cadre, l’utilisation d’une lentille mince en remplacement du filtre froid du cryostat permettrait de limiter la masse supplémentaire à refroidir et de maintenir constant le temps de descente en froid. En infrarouge non refroidi, l’objectif est de concevoir un petit capteur infrarouge bas coût « grand public » que l’on pourra inviter dans nos maisons, nos voitures, voire nos smartphones. L’utilisation d’une lentille mince ouvrirait la voie à des imageurs infrarouges peu onéreux.Dans ce contexte, j’ai choisi d’étudier le comportement d’une lentille de Fresnel dite d’ordre élevé intégrée dans une configuration optique de type landscape lens. J’ai montré que cette architecture optique mince peut fonctionner sur une large bande spectrale et sur un grand champ de vue. Cependant, les lentilles de Fresnel d’ordre élevé étant mal modélisées dans la littérature, j’ai développé mes propres algorithmes de modélisation afin de prévoir les performances d’un tel système. Grâce à cette étude, j’ai ensuite proposé deux systèmes d’imagerie, l’un refroidi et l’autre non refroidi. Chacun des deux systèmes a fait l’objet d’un prototype et a été entièrement caractérisé expérimentalement. Les résultats expérimentaux obtenus m’ont permis de valider les performances anticipées théoriquement et de mettre en évidence un phénomène de chromatisme diffractif latéral. Ces systèmes ouvrent la voie à deux nouvelles générations de caméras infrarouges. J’ai montré que l’imageur infrarouge refroidi possède une qualité image satisfaisante pour des applications d’aide au pilotage. Le prototype non refroidi est lui entièrement compatible avec des applications domotiques. Il a suscité l’intérêt de différents acteurs industriels. / Miniaturizing infrared optical systems is a research area of great interest nowadays in order to make them lighter and cheaper. In the cooled infrared domain, the objective is to design a compact cryogenic camera that could be integrated in a small-capacity carrier like a drone. To that purpose, replacing the cold filter of the dewar by a thin lens would limit the cooled down mass and would stabilize the cool down time. In the uncooled infrared domain, the objective is to design a small general use camera at a low cost. Its use could be generalized in houses, cars or even smartphones. The use of a thin lens would also pave the way for low-cost infrared imagers. In this context, I chose to study the imagery properties of a high order Fresnel lens integrated in a landscape lens architecture. I have demonstrated that this architecture can be used within a wide spectral range and over a wide field of view. However, current optical design software perform poorly on high order Fresnel lenses. Therefore, I have developed my own algorithms to model the performances of such a system. With that study, I have been able to design two prototypes with their own objectives: the first one is cooled and the second one is uncooled. Both systems have been demonstrated and entirely characterized. The experiment results have validated the theoretical performances of the systems and they highlighted an original kind of lateral chromatic aberration.These two systems pave the way to two new generations of infrared cameras. Indeed, on one hand I have proved that the cooled infrared quality may be good enough to qualify for an aircraft piloting aid. On the other hand, the uncooled prototype is fully compatible with low cost surveillance applications and the system raised the interest of various companies.

Du fait de la disponibilité de capteurs éléctroniques de plus en plus puissant, la dernière décennie a vu la popularisation de nouveaux dispositifs mobiles, comme les téléphones intelligents (smartphone), et même des dispositifs miniatures comme ceux de l'informatique portée. Ces nouveaux dispositifs apportent de nouveaux problèmes interactionnels, du fait de la petite taille de l'écran et du problème du "fat-finger" (lors de l'interaction, une large portion de l'écran se retrouve occultée par le doigt, et les tâches de pointage perdent en précision. L'objectif de ce travail est double : 1) d'acquérir une meilleure compréhension du pointage sur les petits dispositifs mobiles, grâce à une étude poussée de la loi Fitts, 2) de créer de nouvelles techniques d'interaction afin d'augmenter la bande passante interactionnelle entre l'utilisateur et le dispositif / Thanks to the availability of powerful miniaturized electronic coponents, this last decade have seen the popularization of small mobile devices such as smartphones, and even smaller devices for wearable computing. These new devices bring new interaction problems, such as the small size of the screen and the "fat-finger" problem (a relatively large portion of the sreen is occluded and pointing lacks precision). the objective of the work reported here is twofold : 1) to aquire a better understanding of pointing on small devices, thanks to an advanced study of Fitts' law, 2) to design new interaction techniques for increasing the interaction bandwidth between the user and the device.

Yes / Pattern Hair Loss (PHL) is a chronic regressive condition of the scalp, where follicular miniaturisation and decreased scalp hair coverage occurs in affected areas. In all PHL cases there is a measurable progressive shortening of the terminal hair growth duration, along with reduced linear growth rates. In both genders, PHL initially shows an increase in short telogen hairs ≤30mm in length, reflecting a cycle completion of under six months in affected terminal hair follicles. To understand the miniaturisation process, we re-examine the dynamics of miniaturisation and ask the question, 'why do miniaturised hair follicles resist treatment?' In the light of recent developments in relation to hair regeneration, we looked back in the older literature for helpful clues 'lost to time' and reprise a 1978 Hermann Pinkus observation of an array of elastin deposits beneath the dermal papilla following subsequent anagen/telogen transitions in male balding, originally described by Arao and Perkins who concluded that these changes provide a "morphologic marker of the entire biologic process in the balding scalp". Thus, we have reviewed the role of the elastin-like bodies in hair pathology and we propose that alterations in elastin architecture may contribute to the failure of vellus-like hair reverting back to their terminal status and may indicate a new area for therapeutic intervention.

No / The degree of insecurity occasioned by fraudulent practices in Nigeria has been of great concern economically, especially as it relates to overseas transactions. This paper was designed to mitigate this problem for Nigeria and countries with similar dispositions. Based on a survey involving field trip to Nigeria, the paper examines the general security situation in Nigeria and its mutual impacts with computerisation, miniaturisation and Location-Based Authentication (LBA). It was discovered that both computerisation and miniaturisation had some negative effects on cybersecurity, as these were being exploited by fraudsters, especially using ‘advance fee fraud;’ popularly called 419. As a countermeasure, the research examined the possibility of using LBA and further digitisation of the GSM Mobile country codes down to City/Area codes along with GSM Mobile/Global Positioning System (GPS) authentications. Where necessary, these could be combined with the use of a web-based Secret Sharing Scheme for services with very high security demands. The anticipated challenges were also examined and considered to be of negligible impacts; especially roaming. / Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)

Yes / The state of insecurity occasioned by fraudulent practices in Africa has been of concern economically, both at home and abroad. In this paper, we propose ways to mitigate this problem, using Nigeria as a case study. Based on surveys in West Africa, the paper examines the security situation in the continent and its mutual impacts with computerisation, miniaturisation and Location-Based Authentication (LBA). It was discovered that computerisation and miniaturisation had negative effects on cyber-security, as these were being exploited by fraudsters, using advance fee fraud; called 419. As a countermeasure, the paper examines the possibility of using LBA and digitisation of the GSM Mobile country codes down to city/area codes along with GSM/GPS authentications. These could also be combined with the use of a web-based Secret Sharing Scheme for services with very high security demands. The challenges of roaming were also examined and considered to be of negligible impact. / Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)

A large part of the activities described in what follows circle around a small number of questions: what is downscaling bene cial to in sensing? What is the technical and scienti c price one has to pay for downscaling? From a general point of view and at a very di erent scale, those are considerations close to the ITRS roadmap for More Moore in the MOS eld, and the tremendous research e orts and scienti c challenges demanded by the continuity of the Moore's law. Although the sensing eld may be included in the so-called More-Than-Moore movement, its evolution has been much less formalized than its MOS counterpart. This document will try to show how my activities modestly contributed to this dispersed e ort. As an introduction, a rst study will be brie y described in this chapter, study which was seminal for those activities as well as which of the group. A number of scienti c issues appear along this study: device physics, device structure, transduction, noise modelling, non-linearities. It is a good way to introduce how the document is structured: this is the work of a team, and the at least partially chronological order is nothing but a logical way to describe how this work have been part of the evolution of a team's work.

Actuellement, les objets communicants sans fils occupent une place prépondérante. Pour faciliter leur utilisation, ces objets sont de plus en plus petits et nécessitent de très petites antennes. Cette miniaturisation d’antennes implique forcément une détérioration de leurs performances. La conception d’antennes électriquement petites (AEP) nécessite une très bonne compréhension théorique des mécanismes électromagnétiques mis en jeu notamment quelles limites précises peut-on atteindre pour une AEP étant circonscrive dans un volume donné. Un des paramètres essentiels d’une AEP est son facteur de qualité intrinsèque qui est inversement proportionnel à sa bande passante en impédance. Ainsi, maximiser la bande passante en impédance d’une antenne consiste à minimiser son facteur de qualité. Face à ce problème, de nombreux travaux ont été développés pour déterminer les limites possibles pour des AEP. C’est dans ce cadre que s’inscrit le premier axe de recherche de la thèse : étudier le facteur de qualité d’AEP, afin de déterminer s’il existe des dimensions optimales permettant de s’approcher de ces limites. Le second axe de recherche a consisté à étudier des AEP fonctionnant à 2,45 GHz pour des implants biomédicaux. Celles-ci sont imprimées sur de nouveaux types de substrat pour avoir une meilleure résolution de trace métallique favorisant une réduction de l’encombrement, et une intégration facilitant ainsi les interconnexions avec les frontaux RF. Le challenge consiste à maximiser les performances de ces antennes. Plusieurs prototypes ont été réalisés pour valider les simulations. / Currently, wireless devices play an important role in everyday life. For ease-of-use, these devices are becoming smaller and require very small antennas. However, the size reduction of these antennas necessarily implies a degradation of their performance. Consequently, the design of electrically small antennas (ESA) requires a very good theoretical understanding of the electromagnetic phenomenon that takes place, especially in terms of accurate performance that can be expected for an ESA with given dimensions. An important parameter of an ESA is its intrinsic quality factor since it is inversely proportional to its impedance bandwidth. Indeed, maximizing the matching bandwidth of an antenna consists in minimizing its quality factor. Facing this problem, many researches have been developed to determine the possible limits of the quality factor of ESA. The first research axis of this thesis is to study the quality factor of ESA to determine whether optimal dimensions exist to approach the fundamental quality factor limits. The second part of the thesis studies miniature antennas for biomedical implants operating at 2.45 GHz. These antennas are printed on a specific microelectronic substrate to ensure a better resolution in terms of metallic traces in order to reduce the size and allow easier integration to facilitate interconnections with RF front-end. The challenge consists in maximizing the performance of these antennas. The presented results are supported by means of electromagnetic models and simulations on one hand. Also, several prototypes are fabricated to validate these simulations.

La miniaturisation d’antenne est un défi important, en particulier en bande VHF où les longueurs d’onde sont grandes. Parmi les différentes techniques rencontrées dans la littérature, une approche théorique originale repose sur l’utilisation de la résonance électrostatique de sphères sub-longueur d’onde de permittivité négative (ENG pour Epsilon NeGative). L’implémentation pratique de cette solution en considérant une décharge plasma comme milieu ENG est étudiée dans ces travaux de thèse. Le plasma laisse entrevoir des potentialités intéressantes pour ce type d’antennes miniatures comme la furtivité et la reconfigurabilité en fréquence. Dans un premier temps, différents modèles analytiques sont développés afin étudier le comportement électromagnétique de petites sphères réalistes de plasma. Ces modèles permettent par ailleurs la construction de schémas numériques précis et adaptés aux simulateurs électromagnétiques commerciaux. Dans un second temps, un prototype fonctionnel est méthodiquement conçu. La solution proposée permet l’intégration du système d’excitation de la décharge plasma au sein de l’antenne sans en perturber son fonctionnement nominal. Ce prototype permet la caractérisation des paramètres plasma de la décharge et du comportement électromagnétique du résonateur sphérique à plasma. Enfin, un travail annexe d’intégration de décharges plasma dans des circuits planaires en technologie micro-ruban est présenté. Les conceptions, modélisations et caractérisations expérimentales de ces résonateurs planaires permettent de mettre en évidence les capacités du plasma pour leur accordabilité en fréquence. / Antenna miniaturisation is a major issue, especially in the VHF band whose wavelengths are significant. Amongst the solution in the litterature, a recent theoretical technique relies upon the electrostatic resonance of negative permittivity (ENG) subwavelength spheres. In this work, the use of a plasma discharge as ENG medium is under consideration. Plasma indeed suggests new potentialities for this kind of small antennas, such as stealth and frequency agility. Firstly, several analytical models are developed to study the electromagnetic response of subwavelength realistic plasma spheres. These models further allow to derive accurate numerical representations that fit commercial electromagnetic solvers. A working prototype that comprises a plasma ignition system within the antenna structure without altering its operation is then designed. It is used to both characterize the plasma discharge and the electromagnetic behavior of the plasma spherical resonator. Finally, this work is extended to the case of planar circuits by integrating a plasma discharge inside microstrip resonators. The design, the modeling and the experimental studies of these resonators highlight the ability of the plasma to tune the resonant frequency.