Four main aspects are studied and explored throughout this dissertation: (1) On-Package Multipolar antenna system design for integration with commercial wireless sensor nodes for machine-to-machine communication applications; (2) Development of a novel MMIC packaging process and subsequent antenna integration for chip-to-chip communication applications, (3) Design and characterization of additively manufactured lumped passive elements for integration with MMIC and hybrid circuits, (4) Design and characterization of antennas for on- and off-metal radio frequency identification (RFID) applications. This work presents the design of different 3-D printed tripolar antenna systems operating at 2.4 GHz. The antennas are designed for integration with commercial wireless nodes with the purpose of mitigating multipath and depolarization channel effects that might be present in many machine-to-machine (M2M) deployments. The antennas are fabricated utilizing an additive manufacturing (AM) approach that combines fused deposition modeling (FDM) of ABS plastic for dielectric parts and micro-dispensing of silver paste Du-Pont CB028 for conductive layers as the majority of the devices presented in this work. Over the air testing demonstrates a 1% channel improvement of up to 14 dB, achieved in a highly-reflective, Rayleigh-like fading environment by implementing selection diversity between three mutually orthogonal monopoles. This improvement leads to better bit error rate (BER) performance (as is also shown). Additionally, RSSI measurements show significant improvement when the prototype antenna system is integrated with commercial wireless sensor hardware. Implications of tripolar antenna integration on M2M systems include reduction in energy use, longer communication link distances, and/or greater link reliability. In order to incorporate the proposed multipolar selection diversity technique into short range wireless chip-to-chip communications, a novel and versatile 3D printed on-chip integration approach using laser machining is subsequently demonstrated for microwave and mm-wave systems in a process herein referred to as Laser Enhanced or Laser Assisted Direct Print Additive Manufacturing (LE-DPAM). The integration process extends interconnects laterally from a MMIC to a chip carrier. Picosecond laser machining is applied and characterized to enhance the 3D printing quality. Specifically, the width of micro-dispensed printed traces is accurately controlled within micrometer range (e.g. laser cuts ~12 μm wide), additionally, 150 μm probe pads are cut in order to facilitate RF measurement. The S-parameters of a distributed amplifier integrated into the package are simulated and measured from 2 to 30 GHz. It is seen how the overall performance is significantly better than a traditional wirebonded QFN package and previously reported AM MMIC interconnections. The attenuation of the microstrip line including interconnects is only 0.2 dB/mm at 20 GHz and return loss with the package is less than 10 dB throughout the operating frequency band A 17 GHz package integrated linearly polarized patch antenna, fabricated with a multi-layer and multi-material LE-DPAM process is then introduced for vertical interconnection with a MMIC die. Performance is successfully measured and characterized achieving a return loss greater than 19 dB at the desired design frequency. Good agreement between simulated and measured radiation patterns is also obtained with a peak gain of 4.2 dBi. Another section of this work utilizes LE-DPAM to fabricate lumped capacitors and inductors for coplanar waveguide (CPW) circuits, especially useful for filtering and matching network implementation. Laser machining is used to achieve ~12 µm slots on printed conductors, producing aspect ratios greater than 2:1, as well as to fabricate vertical interconnects or vias that allow for the fabrication of the multilayer inductors. Inductances in the range of 0.4-3 nH are achieved, with a maximum quality factor of 21, self-resonance frequencies up to 88 GHz, and an inductance per unit of area of 5.3 nH/mm2. Interdigital capacitors in the range of 0.05-0.5 pF are fabricated, having a maximum quality factor of 750 and self-resonances up to 120 GHz. All the components are made on the center line of a CPW that is 836 µm wide. The results show that LE-DPAM enables the fabrication of compact passive circuits that can be easily interconnected with MMIC dies, which at the same time, can be manufactured as part of a larger component. This enables the fabrication of structural electronics that are functional into the mm-wave frequency range. A final aspect of this work goes through antenna designs for specific RFID (radio frequency identification) applications. RFID tag design is generally focused specifically on either off-metal or on-metal configurations. In this work passive 2D and 3D RFID tags are presented which perform similarly in both configurations. The presented tags operate in the ISM RFID UHF bands that cover 864-868 MHz and 902-928 MHz. A matching loop consisting of two parallel stubs to ground is used for impedance matching to a passive integrated circuit, which has -18 dBm sensitivity. A planar 2D tag with a footprint of 13126.5 mm2 is first introduced, showing a simulated gain of approximately 3 dBi and a measured read range of 10 m (for 31 dBm transmit power from the reader) in both on-metal and off-metal conditions. The tag is miniaturized into a 3D geometry with a footprint of 2524.25 mm2 (520% reduction) and achieves the same broadside simulated on-metal gain. The antennas are fabricated using a DPAM process, and a meshed ground configuration is explored in order to accomplish a 50% conductive paste reduction without disrupting the performance. The proposed tags are compared with commercially available tags as well as previously published tags in terms of read range and size. The tags in this work present an improvement in terms of read range, gain, and area with respect to previous designs covering the ISM RFID UHF bands. Moreover, the performance of these tags is maintained in on- and off-metal conditions, achieving comparable performance and a reduction in volume of 11482% with respect to the best tag reported.

Vectors derived from Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) are being widely developed for gene therapy applications, principally because they are able to transduce both dividing and non-dividing cells and result in stable, long term gene expression. However, these vectors are difficult to produce in high titres and sufficient volumes for large scale experiments and clinical application. Therefore, an investigation into methods to improve the production of HIV-1 derived gene transfer vectors was undertaken. One factor that limits the production of recombinant virus is the amount of viral genomic RNA available for packaging into virions. Therefore, a transfer vector was modified with the aim of increasing the amount of genomic RNA produced. Substitution of the polyadenylation (pA) signal, mutation splice donor sites and removal of unnecessary sequences were all examined. pA signal readthrough was quantified to determine the effect of these modifications on the rate of pA signal readthrough. Insertional mutagenesis and vector mobilisation are recognised risk factors with all integrating vectors. Self inactivating (SIN) vectors, which contain a deletion of U3 sequences in the 3’ LTR, demonstrate a reduced rate of mobilisation. Transduction with these vectors results in a provirus containing no viral promoter elements, with transcription of the transgene being controlled from an internal promoter. However, LTR repair of SIN vectors occurs at an appreciable frequency. Therefore, the extent of this deletion was maximised and the effect on the frequency of the repair examined. The production of lentiviral gene therapy vectors by large-scale transient transfection is both time consuming and technically difficult. Therefore, methods to increase the scale of production without compromising virus titre were developed. This resulted in fewer transfections and less handling of the cells when making virus on a large scale (3-4 L). In order to process the virus on this scale in a single day (i.e. 8 hours), new concentration and purification methods were established. The protocol consisted of low speed centrifugation, 0.45 μm filtration, 750 kDa ultrafiltration, 0.8 μm filtration and ultracentrifugation. However, the use of ultracentrifugation means that this protocol is not amenable to further scale up. Therefore, the replacement of the ultracentrifugation step with anion exchange was investigated. A number of different resins and anion exchange devices were investigated, two of which show promise for large scale purification of HIV-1 derived gene transfer vectors. In an ideal world, HIV-1 derived gene transfer vectors would be produced using stable packaging cell lines engineered to produce the desired virus. However, previous attempts to produce such a cell line with the desired properties have had limited success and have generally used outdated helper systems. Therefore, in an attempt to combine the efficiency advantages of having a single helper plasmid with the safety advantages of expressing each protein separately, a single packaging construct that contained separate transcription units for each of the required proteins was produced. Transcription of cyotoxic proteins was controlled by inducible promoters. Initial results suggest that such a system is technically feasible but that further work is required to optimise the expression of helper functions. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1309550 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health, 2008

L'électronique de puissance d'aujourd'hui s'inscrit dans un contexte environnemental où l'économie d'énergie est au centre des préoccupations. La traduction technologique d'une telle problématique sera, pour l'électronicien, la recherche de structures de conversion optimisant à la fois le rendement, la fiabilité et la qualité de l'énergie absorbée ou produite. Cet effort d'optimisation énergétique ne saurait être satisfaisant sans une recherche d'adaptation matérielle aux applications industrielles ou domestiques visées (avion tout électrique, éclairage...). C'est dans ce contexte que se situe ce travail de thèse, visant à chercher des solutions innovantes en terme de package de convertisseurs statiques satisfaisant les exigences de ces nouveaux secteurs d'exploitation, dans lesquels la miniaturisation, la fiabilité ou encore l'immunité aux perturbations CEM sont déterminants.

<p>In today’s competitive global economy, the focus is on faster delivery of orders at lower total costs. In this paper we are interested in several aspects of order picking systems. We examine the influence of station layout, storage policy, picking policy and sorting solution on order picking system performance. On each of the analysis we consider a few solutions. We determine influence of different number of station in raw on picking system performance. We design the replenishment system supported by kanban philosophy with implemented economical order quantity (EOQ) and reorder point (ROP). The picking system is designed for assumed product’s demand values. The assessment of each of the solution is done through Arena simulation model. The results show that properly designed station with reasonable storage policy and implemented batching policy brings significant raise in order picking system productivity. In addition, we found that proper sortation system logic allows for more equal workload and reduction of maximum queue lengths. The results offer solutions to managers looking to implement improvements in order picking systems.</p>

<p>Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att genom empiri se vilka faktorer som är av central betydelse i konsumentens köpbeslutsprocess och samtidigt pröva riktigheten hos de förpackningsteorierna vi valt som teoretisk referensram.</p><p>Metod: Empirin samlades in genom en kvalitativ metod bestående av djupintervjuer med konsumenter som köper lågengagemangsprodukten spaghetti.</p><p>Teoretiska perspektiv: Teorikapitlet strävar efter att ge en bild av några marknadsföringsbegrepp och förpackningen och dess olika element. Till sist presenteras två modeller som ligger till grund för undersökningen.</p><p>Empirisk analys: Empiri består av tolv stycken djupintervjuer med konsumenter som köper spaghetti. Dessa har sedan tolkats och analyserats utifrån modellen om köpbeslutsprocessen, som är uppbyggd av teorierna.</p><p>Slutsatser: Slutsatserna är att faktorn information är av centralbetydelse för konsumenten i sitt köpbeslut och ur den teoretiska grund som finns i uppsatsen, kan inte alla teorier ges riktighet. Av undersökningen framkom det också att graden av engagemang i köpbeslutsprocessen har ökat. Enligt konsumenterna ska en optimal förpackning vara återförslutningsbar, vara större och ha refill funktion samt ha en tydlig innehållsdeklaration på svenska. Resultatet visar att producenterna måste uppdatera sig med dagens trender.</p> / <p>Purpose: The purpose with this paper is to investigate the elements which are central in the buying-decision-process and also test the validity of the packaging theories.</p><p>Methodology: The empirical research has been made through qualitative methods using depth interviews with consumers who buy pasta.</p><p>Theoretical perspective: The theoretical framework including marketing, package design, functions, elements and two conceptual models of packaging elements, involvement and buying decision.</p><p>Empirical analysis: The empirical investigation is based upon twelve in-depth interviews with consumers who buys spaghetti. These have been interpreted and analysed through our model of the buying-decsion-process.</p><p>Conclusions: The results confirm that the informational element is essential for the consumer and all theories, from the theoretical framework, can’t have correctness. The investigation also shows that consumers level of involvement has increased. An optimal package according to the consumers has to be re-sealing, bigger, have refill and contents in swedish. The study demonstrate that the manufacturers have to be up to date and follow the trends to be able to survive.</p>

Abstract: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and related technologies have been touted to allow exponential improvements in supply chain logistics and management. However, many industrial users have indicated that these technologies have not provided the anticipated benefits. The two complimentary strategies required to address the RFID reliability are: to improve the reliability of RFID technology and to design the supply chain infrastructure that enables RFID. The focus of this paper is on designing the supply chain infrastructure to enable RFID by developing guidelines for “RFID Ready Facilities”. These guidelines were developed based on a set of experiments conducted in the RFID supply chain laboratory. These guidelines were developed by using Design of Experiments (DOE) to determine the operational and facility factors that impact RFID reliability. The three different packaging strategies were tested on packages, boxes and their various combinations. The main factors considered in the experiments were the following among many others: Package Orientation (PO), Tag Placement (TP), Package Placement (PP), Reader Location (RL), Box Orientation (BO), Tag Placement on Box (TPB) and Tag Placement on Package (TPP). Based on the DOE results, general guidelines were developed for RFID packaging.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att genom empiri se vilka faktorer som är av central betydelse i konsumentens köpbeslutsprocess och samtidigt pröva riktigheten hos de förpackningsteorierna vi valt som teoretisk referensram. Metod: Empirin samlades in genom en kvalitativ metod bestående av djupintervjuer med konsumenter som köper lågengagemangsprodukten spaghetti. Teoretiska perspektiv: Teorikapitlet strävar efter att ge en bild av några marknadsföringsbegrepp och förpackningen och dess olika element. Till sist presenteras två modeller som ligger till grund för undersökningen. Empirisk analys: Empiri består av tolv stycken djupintervjuer med konsumenter som köper spaghetti. Dessa har sedan tolkats och analyserats utifrån modellen om köpbeslutsprocessen, som är uppbyggd av teorierna. Slutsatser: Slutsatserna är att faktorn information är av centralbetydelse för konsumenten i sitt köpbeslut och ur den teoretiska grund som finns i uppsatsen, kan inte alla teorier ges riktighet. Av undersökningen framkom det också att graden av engagemang i köpbeslutsprocessen har ökat. Enligt konsumenterna ska en optimal förpackning vara återförslutningsbar, vara större och ha refill funktion samt ha en tydlig innehållsdeklaration på svenska. Resultatet visar att producenterna måste uppdatera sig med dagens trender. / Purpose: The purpose with this paper is to investigate the elements which are central in the buying-decision-process and also test the validity of the packaging theories. Methodology: The empirical research has been made through qualitative methods using depth interviews with consumers who buy pasta. Theoretical perspective: The theoretical framework including marketing, package design, functions, elements and two conceptual models of packaging elements, involvement and buying decision. Empirical analysis: The empirical investigation is based upon twelve in-depth interviews with consumers who buys spaghetti. These have been interpreted and analysed through our model of the buying-decsion-process. Conclusions: The results confirm that the informational element is essential for the consumer and all theories, from the theoretical framework, can’t have correctness. The investigation also shows that consumers level of involvement has increased. An optimal package according to the consumers has to be re-sealing, bigger, have refill and contents in swedish. The study demonstrate that the manufacturers have to be up to date and follow the trends to be able to survive.

ORMOCERR®s are organic-inorganic hybrid polymers. Since their material properties can be tailored precisely during synthesis, they are suitable for a wide range of applications in dielectric and optical microelectronics. This thesis reports on process development of ORMOCERR®s for Sequentially Build-Up (SBU) test vehicles, suitable for both electrical and optical interconnect. Furthermore, this work includes materials characterization, such as refractive index studies (system B59:V32), optical loss measurements (systems B59:V32 and B59:B66), and surface characterization through contact angle measurement and surface energy estimation (systems B59:V32 and B59:B66). Process development for a high-frequency test vehicle was performed applying a newly developed dielectric material of the ORMOCER® class. Dielectric layers in a total thickness of 80 μm were build-up on a common FR4 substrate, applying photolithographic processes and moderate process temperatures of below 433 K. The loss tangent and the permittivity of the material were measured to be 0.024 (loss tangent) and 3.05 (permittivity) over the entire frequency range 10 GHz to 40 GHz. The compatibility of the material to standard processes of the PCB industry was proven. Furthermore, a possibility for cost reduction in high-frequency MCM applications was shown, through the possibility of using low-cost substrates. The concept of a “flexible manufacture approach” for large-area panel optical backplane interconnects was introduced. Here, a 101.6 mm x 101.6 mm photolithographic mask is to be stepped-out over a large-area panel substrate (up to 609.6 mm x 609.6 mm). The goal is to be able to create a large amount of continuous and unique waveguide patterns over the whole area with a small portfolio of masks, thus being able to minimize excess costs. In practice continuous waveguide patterns were created over an area of 204.8 mm x 204.8 mm on a large-are panel (609.6 mm x 609.6 mm), using a large-are mask aligner and a 101.6 mm x 101.6 mm waveguide mask. The optical loss of the waveguides was measured to be 0.6 dB/cm (B59:V32 material system, λ =850 nm). In connection to the large-area panel project a re-evaluation on the optical power budget needed for high bit rate optical interconnects was performed. This work was mainly based on literature surveys of optical waveguide materials, planar optical amplifiers, light coupling structures, and planar light-routing structures. It was shown that optical amplification is necessary at certain places on realistically routed optical backplanes to boost the optical signal. Therefore, the concept of a flip-chip mountable optical amplifier (FOWA) device, based on planar optical waveguide amplifiers and Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers, was developed. The device’s design allows an independent manufacturing to the rest of the board and a mounting at key-positions using standard pick and place technology. Additionally, it was observed that most of the amplifier research is focused on the wavelength of 1310 nm and 1550 nm, whereas optical backplane applications are targeting the 830 nm range. During SBU processing of waveguide structures was discovered a de-wetting phenomenon of B59 resin on a cured B59:B66 and B59:V32 surface, respectively. Good wetting behavior could be achieved by adding small amounts of B66 or V32, respectively, to the B59. Surface tension estimations on various compositions of the systems B59:B66 and B59:V32 could not directly be correlated to the de-wetting phenomenon. Furthermore, the optical loss properties of B59 were only affected to a minor degree by adding B66 or V32. The process route proposed is an efficient alternative to processes including surface activations steps, thus opening possibilities for large-area processing in PCB industry, where surface activation steps, such as plasma activation or silanization, are not available. The process development, materials characterization, and reviews presented provide a basis for further research on processes for high-performance electro/optical backplane interconnects with focus on Large-Area Panel processing.

Interactive packaging is an emerging research area in recent years. It brings people convenient and smart lives, reduces consumption of traditional packaging materials and direct or indirect labor costs as well. Being integrated in interactive packaging, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology becomes one of the most proactive development enablers. In this paper, an interactive and intelligent packaging solution integrating passive RFID system and Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) is given at first. Package opening action is electrically controlled by the RFID system. CDM is primarily used in aerospace applications in the past and the conductor/adhesive joint can be easily opened by applying a little electric power on to the material. Some related works will be shown about the electrochemical characteristics of CDM in order to facilitate the system design. A demonstration system was developed and the test results have proved feasibility of the solution and shown the potential of low cost for mass production. Based on this solution, an interactive medication package for pervasive healthcare is further developed, using EPCglobal Gen2 RFID technology. It will make the medication being accessible for patient only at the prescribed dose and time, and medication taking information will be delivered as well. Such medication package will not only give unprecedented high patient compliance, but also improve the communication between patients and healthcare staffs. / QC 20111202

No description available.