Portable mass spectrometers provide convenience for applications where conventional mass spectrometers are not suitable. However, a series of miniaturization issues show up in small mass spectrometers, specifically mass analyzers, that need to be thoroughly addressed before further miniaturization. The work in this dissertation focuses on miniaturization issues of ion trap mass analyzers. Space-charge is one of the major issues in small ion traps affecting their analytical performance. It limits ion trapping capacity when ion-ion repulsion causes spreading of a packet of ions. Simulation studies on the relationship between different trap dimensions and trapping capacity was done on a geometry-optimized cylindrical ion trap. A reasonable way of scaling the two important operating parameters (trapping voltage and trapping frequency as functions of the trap dimension) was discussed and applied in the simulation. The trapping capacity (N) decreased with the physical trap dimension (r0) as expected, and N is scaled exponentially as r0. Scaling laws for trapping parameters are proposed, confirmed by SIMION simulations that evaluate the space charge issue in small ion traps. This effect represents a practical limit in ion trap miniaturization.Geometry deviation is another issue that cannot be neglected in miniaturized ion traps, especially in small linear ion traps (LIT). The LIT our group is working on consists of an assembly of two plates, of which each was made by lithographically patterning a series of electrodes on an insulating plate. It is a promising way of expanding the trap capacity at a small trap dimension. However, misalignment of the two plates might seriously affect its performance, specifically resolution and signal intensity. Simulations were done on the misalignment of two-plate planar LIT in the six possible degrees of freedom (DOF) of misalignment between the two plates. Each DOF's influence on the mass resolution and the ion detection efficiency were discussed. Preliminary data from a previous ceramic plate design was collected while most of the misalignment experiments were done on an improved version. A platform was designed incorporating four motorized stages to precisely control the alignment of the ion trap in vacuum. The new plate design was demonstrated to achieve a better than unit resolution for toluene and deuterated toluene after the plates were aligned. The impact on the resolution and signal intensity from pitch, x-, y- and z-displacement were also experimentally studied.

I describe the miniaturization of a linear-type ion trap mass spectrometer for possible applications in portable chemical analysis, and demonstrate the advantages of using lithographically patterned electrode plates in realizing an ion trap with dimension r0 less than 1 mm. The focus of the work was to demonstrate the viability and feasibility of the patterned electrode approach to trap miniaturization, and also to discover potential obstacles to its use. Planar ceramic substrates were patterned with metal electrodes using photolithography. Plates that were originally used in a linear trap with a half-spacing (r0) of 2.19 mm were positioned much closer together such that r0 = 0.95 mm. A capacitive voltage divider provided different radiofrequency (RF) amplitudes to each electrode, and the capacitor values were adjusted to provide the correct electric field at this closer spacing. Electron ionization mass spectra of toluene and dichloromethane demonstrate instrument performance with better than unit mass resolution. Compared with the larger plate spacing, the signal intensity is reduced, corresponding to the reduced trapping capacity of the smaller device, but the mass resolution of the larger device is retained. A further miniaturized linear ion trap with a half-spacing of 362 µm was designed and tested. A series of obstacles and troubleshooting on ion source, analytical method, and electronics were present. These experiments show promise for further miniaturization using patterned ceramic plates and provide a guide for the ion trap miniaturization. The feasibility of a wire linear ion trap was also demonstrated. Unit mass resolution was obtained, indicating a promise for further optimization and miniaturization of the wire linear ion trap. In addition to the practical experiments on the miniaturized linear ion traps, I theoretically studied ion motion in the toroidal ion trap using SIMION simulations, which show classical chaotic behavior of single ions. The chaotic motion is a result of the non-linear components of the electric fields as established by the trap electrodes, and not by Coulombic interaction from other ions. The chaotic behavior was observed specifically in the ejection direction of ions located in non-linear resonance bands within and adjacent to the region of stable trapping. The non-linear bands crossing through the stability regions correspond to hexapole resonance conditions, while the chaotic ejection observed immediately adjacent to the stable trapping region corresponds to a "fuzzy" ejection boundary. Fractal-like patterns were obtained in a series of zoomed-in regions of the stability diagram.

La microbiologie est la science qui s'attache à l'étude des microorganismes et de leurs propriétés. Depuis ses débuts au XV II siècle, les méthodes développées par les microbiologistes ont permis de révéler un énorme potentiel de connaissances et d'applications. Dans les dernières décennies, les industriels ont vu un intérêt tout particulier dans ce domaine d'étude. Le besoin de prévenir les contaminations en inhibant le développement microbien, ou au contraire la volonté de l'optimiser pour profiter des capacités de transformations chimiques des microorganismes a fait naître une demande croissante de tests microbiologiques. Le faible rendement des méthodes traditionnelles ne permettant pas de satisfaire à cette demande, la recherche de nouvelles méthodes de test focalise les intérêts. Les outils fluidiques miniaturisés ont d'ores et déjà fait preuve de leur potentiel pour ce type d'application, bien que leur validation vis-à-vis des méthodes classiques manque souvent.Dans ce travail de thèse, nous avons développé des incubateurs miniaturisés et des méthodes de suivi de populations de microorganismes optimisés. L'objectif est d'aborder l'impact de la réduction d'échelle d'incubation sur la croissance par rapport aux dispositifs de culture traditionnel, pour ensuite aboutir à un outil haut-débit pour la caractérisation de biocides. / Microbiology is the part of science linked with the study of microorganisms and their properties. Since its beginnings in the XV IIth century, the methods developped by the microbiologists revealed a huge potential of knowledge and applications.In the last decades, industrials realized the interests of this study areaThe need to prevent contaminations by inhibiting microbial development, or on the contrary the will to improve it to enjoy the chemical transformations capacities of the microorganisms gave birth to an increasing demand for microbiological tests. The poor yield of traditionnal methods does not allow to satisfy this need, and the search for new test methods is thus focalizing interests. Miniaturized fluidic tools have already proven their potential for this kind of applications, and yet, their validation towards traditionnal methods often lacks.In this work, we aim at developping miniaturized cultivation techniques and optimized growth analysis methods, to study the scale reduction impact of incubator's size on growth, in order to end up with a high-throughput tool for biocide caracterization.

Absorption space-conditioning systems are environmentally benign alternatives to vapor compression systems and have the capability of being driven by waste heat. However, a lack of practically feasible and economically viable compact heat and mass exchangers is a major limitation in the success of this technology. The viability of the absorption cycle depends upon the performance of the absorber, which experiences large heat and mass transfer resistances due to adverse temperature and concentration gradients during the phase change of the binary mixture working fluid, resulting in large overall component sizes. Understanding of the coupled heat and mass transfer during binary fluid mixture absorption at the microscales is critical for the miniaturization of these components, which will enable broad implementation of this technology. The proposed study aims to achieve this by investigating ammonia-water absorption for two distinct flow configurations: external falling films and internal convective flows. For the falling-film absorption case, ammonia-water solution flows around an array of small diameter coolant tubes while absorbing vapor. This absorber is installed in a test facility comprising all components of a single-effect absorption chiller to provide realistic operating conditions at the absorber. Local temperature, pressure, and flow measurements will be taken over a wide range of operating conditions and analyzed to develop a heat and mass transfer model for falling-film ammonia-water absorption. A microscale convective flow absorber will also be investigated. This absorber consists of an array of parallel, aligned alternating shims with integral microscale features, enclosed between cover plates. These microscale features facilitate flow of various fluid streams and the associated heat and mass transfer. The use of microchannels induces high heat and mass transfer rates without any active or passive surface enhancement. The microscale absorber for small-scale applications will be evaluated over a wide range of operating conditions on a single-effect absorption heat pump breadboard test facility. The study will conclude with a comparison of the two flow configurations for absorption, with recommendations for their application in future miniaturization efforts

<p>The primary goals of this study were to demonstrate and fully characterize a microscale ionization source (i.e. micro-ion source) and to determine the validity of impact ionization theory for microscale devices and pressures up to 100 mTorr. The field emission properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) along with Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) design processes were used to achieve these goals. Microwave Plasma-enhanced CVD was used to grow vertically aligned Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs) on the microscale devices. A 4-dimensional parametric study focusing on CNT growth parameters confirmed that Fe catalyst thickness had a strong effect on MWNT diameter. The MWNT growth rate was seen to be a strong function of the methane-to-ammonia gas ratio during MWNT growth. A high methane-to-ammonia gas ratio was selected for MWNT growth on the MEMS devices in order to minimize growth time and ensure that the thermal budget of those devices was met. </p><p>A CNT-enabled microtriode device was fabricated and characterized. A new aspect of this device was the inclusion of a 10 micron-thick silicon dioxide electrical isolation layer. This thick oxide layer enabled anode current saturation and performance improvements such as an increase in dc amplification factor from 27 to 600. The same 3-panel device was also used as an ionization source. Ion currents were measured in the 3-panel micro-ion source for helium, argon, nitrogen and xenon in the 0.1 to 100 mTorr pressure range. A linear increase in ion current was observed for an increase in pressure. However, simulations indicated that the 3-panel design could be modified to improve performance as well as better understand device behavior. Thus, simulations and literature reports on electron impact ionization sources were used to design a new 4-panel micro-ion source. The 4-panel micro-ion source showed an approximate 10-fold performance improvement compared to the 3-panel ion source device. The improvement was attributed to the increased electron current and improved ion collection efficiency of the 4-panel device. Further, the same device was also operated in a 3-panel mode and showed superior performance compared to the original 3-panel device, mainly because of increased ion collection efficiency. </p><p>The effect of voltages applied to the different electrodes in the 4-panel micro-ion source on ion source performance was studied to better understand device behavior. The validity of the ion current equation (which was developed for macroscale ion sources operating at low pressures) in the 4-panel micro-ion source was studied. Experimental ion currents were measured for helium, argon and xenon in the 3 to 100 mTorr pressure range. For comparison, theoretical ion currents were calculated using the ion current equation for the 4-panel micro-ion source utilizing values calculated from SIMION simulations and measured electron currents. The measured ion current values in the 3 to 20 mTorr pressure range followed the calculated ion currents quite closely. A significant deviation was observed in the 20-100 mTorr pressure range. The experimental ion current values were used to develop a corrected empirical model for the 4-panel micro-ion source in this high pressure range (i.e., 3 to 100 mTorr). The role of secondary electrons and electron path lengths at higher pressures is discussed.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis includes the study of hybrid microwave integrated circuits (HMIC), miniaturization techniques applied on HMICs and its application on a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) range sensor transceiver. In the scope of study, hybrid and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (HMIC and MMIC) are introduced, advantages and disadvantages of these two types are discussed. Large size of HMICs is the main disadvantage especially for military and civil applications requiring miniature volumes. This thesis is mainly devoted on miniaturization work of HMICs in order to cope with this problem. In this scope, miniaturization techniques of some HMICs such as 3 dB hybrid couplers and stubs are examined and analyzed. Their simulation and measurement results cohere with original circuit results. Nevertheless, considerable size reduction up to 80% is achieved. Moreover, planar interdigital capacitors (IDC), spiral inductors (SI) and their equivalent circuit models are introduced. Design technique is discussed with illustrative electromagnetic (EM) simulations. Furthermore, FMCW radar is introduced with its basic operation principles, brief history and usage areas. In addition, FMCW range sensor transceiver is designed with its sub&amp / #8208 / parts / power amplifier, low noise amplifier (LNA), coupler and front end. Multi technology based on chip transistors, interdigital capacitors, spiral inductors and hybrid couplers with wire&amp / #8208 / bond connections is used in the design. As the result of using hybrid miniaturized components small layout size is achieved for the transceiver system with its all components.

Pulse tube refrigerators (PTR) are robust, rugged cryocoolers that do not have a moving component at their cold ends. They are often employed for cryogenic cooling of high performance electronics in space applications where reliability is paramount. Miniaturizing these refrigerators has been a subject of intense research interest because of the benefits of minimal size and weight for airborne operation and because miniature coolers would be an enabling technology for other applications. Despite much effort, the extent of possible PTR miniaturization is still uncertain. To partially remedy this, an investigation of the miniaturization of pulse tube refrigerators has been undertaken using several numerical modeling techniques. In support of these models, experiments were performed to determine directional hydrodynamic parameters characteristic of stacked screens of #635 stainless steel and #325 phosphor bronze wire mesh, two fine-mesh porous materials suitable for use in the regenerator and heat exchanger components of miniature PTRs. Complete system level and pulse tube component level CFD models incorporating these parameters were then employed to quantitatively estimate the effects of several phenomena expected to impact the performance of miniature PTRs. These included the presence of preferential flow paths in an annular region near the regenerator wall and increased viscous and thermal boundary layer thicknesses relative to the pulse tube diameter. The effects of tapering or chamfering the junctions between components of dissimilar diameters were also investigated. The results of these models were subsequently applied to produce successively smaller micro-scale PTR models having total volumes as small as 0.141 cc for which sufficient net cooling was predicted to make operation at cryogenic temperatures feasible. The results of this investigation provide design criteria for miniaturized PTRs and establish the feasibility of their operation at frequencies up to 1000 Hz with dimensions roughly an order of magnitude smaller than those that have recently been demonstrated, provided that challenges related to their regenerator fillers and compressors can be addressed.

Nowadays, demands for fully integrated and miniaturized RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits) have increased in wireless microwave communication system. Passive components such as coupler, divider and filters are always fabricated in outside of ICs due to their bulky sizes, which have been a great barrier to a realization of a fully integrated design. To solve this problem, miniaturization of passive components is one of the big issues at the present time. This paper shows the development of two important microwave passive components, quadrature hybrid and rat-race couplers for LTE lower (698 -960 MHz) and higher (1.71 - 2.70 GHz) frequency bands, which are obtained by replacing quarter-wave (λ/4) transmission line of a conventional coupler by their equivalent coupled line, resulting in significant size reduction. The miniaturized quadrature and rat race couplers are designed and fabricated with a Rogers 4360 substrate as a platform in producing significantly reduction. The design is validated by electromagnetic simulation and measurement. The size of the implemented quadrature hybrid coupler is 30 × 26.8 mm^2 and 14.9 × 12.5 mm^2, which are 82.60 % and 69.03% compared to the conventional couplers for lower and higher frequency band respectively. And, 55.5 × 27.9 mm^2 and 19.2 × 14.8 mm^2 for rat race coupler, which are 79.69 % and 62.35 % compared to the conventional coupler for lower and higher frequency band, respectively. Also, the reflection coefficient and the isolation are as good as conventional one and coupling procedure is similar or better than it.

A comprehensive study of a miniaturized thermally activated cooling system was conducted. This study represents the first work to conceptualize, design, fabricate and successfully test a thermally activated cooling system for mobile applications. Thermally activated systems have the ability to produce useful cooling from waste heat streams or directly from the combustion of liquid fuels. Numerous concepts of miniaturized or mobile, active cooling systems exist in the literature but up to this point, successful fabrication and testing has not been documented. During this study, a breadboard absorption heat pump system was fabricated from off the shelf or in-house, custom-built components. The breadboard system was used to validate the feasibility of operating an absorption heat pump with a cooling capacity of about 300 W. Subsequently, a flexible and scalable design methodology for designing miniaturized absorption heat pumps was developed. A miniaturized, 300 W nominal cooling capacity ammonia/water absorption heat pump cycle with overall dimensions of 200 × 200 × 34 mm and a mass of 7 kg was then fabricated and tested. Testing of the absorption heat pump was conducted over a range of heat sink temperatures (20 ≤ T ≤ 35°C) and desorber thermal input rates (500 ≤ Q ≤ 800 W). Evaporator coolant heat duties in the study ranged from 136 to 300 W, while system COPs ranged from 0.247 to 0.434. At a nominal rating condition of 35°C heat sink temperature, the maximum thermal input of 800 W produced a cooling effect of 230 W. This represents a cycle COP of 0.29. Analysis of the experimental data indicated that future work should focus on improved desorber and rectifier designs to improve refrigerant purity. It is estimated that a system similar to the one in this study, with all fluid connections made internal to the system, could achieve the same cooling capacity with a system mass of 2.5 - 3.5 kg in an envelop of 120 × 120 × 25 mm.

Le développement de l’électronique embarquée et miniaturisée est pleinement d’actualité de nos jours, dans les domaines tels que l’armement, la médecine, et les télécommunications. La miniaturisation des antennes large-bande, opérationnelles sur plus d’une décade, présentent un défi particulier. Ces travaux de thèse proposent de travailler sur la miniaturisation d’une antenne spirale, afin d’en réduire l’encombrement, à savoir son diamètre, tout en conservant au mieux ses caractéristiques de rayonnement et polarisation intrinsèques. Cette recherche sera appliquée à la bande des Très hautes Fréquence (Very High Frequencies – VHF), allant de 30MHz à 300MHz La géométrie inédite proposée consiste à associer à une antenne spirale un ensemble d’anneaux résonnants, dont le diamètre n’excède pas celui de la spirale, et permettant de diminuer la fréquence basse de fonctionnement. Pour un ensemble de cinq anneaux associé à la spirale, la réduction de la fréquence basse de fonctionnement est de plus de 30%. Pour deux antennes spirales de même fréquence basse de fonctionnement, l’antenne miniaturisée a donc un diamètre réduit de 30%, soit une surface réduite de 50%. Les performances de l’état de l’art d’après lesquelles les réductions sur le diamètre des antennes spirales n’excèdent pas 15% sont donc dépassées. De plus, d’après cet état de l’art, les méthodes de réduction appliquées aux antennes large bande dégradent en général le gain et l’axial ratio dans les bandes basses de fréquences de fonctionnement. La méthode proposée permet de conserver l’efficacité de l’antenne, voire de l’augmenter, dans les fréquences proches de la fréquence basse de fonctionnement. Le rayonnement de l’antenne spirale miniaturisée dans la bande passante de l’antenne sans anneaux n’est pour autant pas modifiée. Ces résultats très encourageant ont été confirmés par la mesure d’antennes spirales miniaturisées, réalisées pour un diamètre de 8cm et de 1m : une réduction de 30% du diamètre sans dégradation du rayonnement a été observée. Les mesures ont par ailleurs donné lieu à l’étude de la réalisation d’une antenne en bande VHF, avec pour implication les problématiques de réalisation (masse, encombrement, résistance mécanique) et de mesure (isolation, effets parasites en VHF avec une longueur d’onde de 4m). / Miniaturizing electronic devices is a great challenge in crucial research domain such as defense, medicine, and telecommunications. Wideband antenna miniaturization operating on more than a decade is a particular issue. This thesis presents an original method for miniaturizing a spiral antenna, reducing its diameter while keeping its bandwidth, its radiating performances and its axial ratio characteristics. This method is applied to UHF spiral antenna (from 750MHz) and VHF antenna (from 75MHz). The new geometry adds stacked resonant rings to an Archimedean spiral antenna. Their diameter are the same, hence no rise of the antenna diameter. For a 5-ring spiral antenna, the lowest operating frequency reduction is higher than 30%. That is equivalent to a 30% reduction of the diameter for two antennas sharing the same lowest operating frequency, hence a 50% reduction of the area of the antenna. These reduction factors surpass the reduction factors of the state of art of 15%. Besides, according to the state of art, the miniaturizing techniques imply some degradation of the gain and axial ratio performances at the lowest operating frequencies. The new method improves on the other hand these characteristics at these frequencies. At higher frequencies, the rings do not interfere with the matching of neither the spiral antenna nor its radiation characteristics. These results were validated by fabricated antenna measurements. A 30% reduction of the diameter was obtained on a 5-ring-8cm-large antenna as well as on a 5-ring-1m-large antenna. No impairment was noticed on the radiation of the antennas, even at the lowest operating frequencies. The thesis also discusses the difficulties which came in addition for the fabrication (mass, size and mechanical resistance) and measurement (radiation interferences and measurement isolation – the wavelength being 4m) of the VHF antenna.