The profound digitization of modern microelectronic modules made Analog-to- Digital converters (ADC) key components in many systems. With resolutions up to 14bits and sampling rates in the 100s of MHz, the pipeline ADC is a prime candidate for a wide range of applications such as instrumentation, communications and consumer electronics. However, while past work focused on enhancing the performance of the pipeline ADC from an architectural standpoint, little has been done to individually address its fundamental building blocks. This work aims to achieve the latter by proposing design techniques to improve the performance of these blocks with minimal power consumption in low voltage environments, such that collectively high performance is achieved in the pipeline ADC. Towards this goal, a Recycling Folded Cascode (RFC) amplifier is proposed as an enhancement to the general performance of the conventional folded cascode. Tested in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 0.18?m Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the RFC provides twice the bandwidth, 8-10dB additional gain, more than twice the slew rate and improved noise performance over the conventional folded cascode-all at no additional power or silicon area. The direct auto-zeroing offset cancellation scheme is optimized for low voltage environments using a dual level common mode feedback (CMFB) circuit, and amplifier differential offsets up to 50mV are effectively cancelled. Together with the RFC, the dual level CMFB was used to implement a sample and hold amplifier driving a singleended load of 1.4pF and using only 2.6mA; at 200MS/s better than 9bit linearity is achieved. Finally a power conscious technique is proposed to reduce the kickback noise of dynamic comparators without resorting to the use of pre-amplifiers. When all techniques are collectively used to implement a 1Vpp 10bit 160MS/s pipeline ADC in Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) 0.18[mu]m CMOS, 9.2 effective number of bits (ENOB) is achieved with a near Nyquist-rate full scale signal. The ADC uses an area of 1.1mm2 and consumes 42mW in its analog core. Compared to recent state-of-the-art implementations in the 100-200MS/s range, the presented pipeline ADC uses the least power per conversion rated at 0.45pJ/conversion-step.

The purpose of this study was to create a new method for visualizing music. Although many music visualizations already exist, this research was focused on creating high-quality, high-complexity animations that cannot be matched by real-time systems. There should be an obvious similarity between the input music and the final animation, based on the music information which the user decides to extract and visualize. This project includes a pipeline for music data extraction and creation of an editable visualization file. Within the pipeline, a music file is read into a custom analysis tool and time-based data is extracted. This data is output and then read into Autodesk Maya. The user may then manipulate the visualization as they see fit using the tools within Maya and render out a final animation. The default result of this process is a Maya scene file which makes use of the dynamics systems available to warp and contort a jelly-like cube. A variety of other visualizations may be obtained by mapping the data to different object attributes within the Maya interface. When rendered out and overlaid onto the music, there was a recognizable correlation between elements in the music and the animations in the video. This study shows that an accurate musical visualization may be achieved using this pipeline. Also, any number of different music visualizations may be obtained with relative ease when compared to the manual analysis of a music file or the manual animation of Maya objects to match elements in the music.

A low-energy current-mode algorithmic pipelined ADC targeted for use in distributed sensor networks is presented. The individual nodes combine sensing, computation and communications into an extremely small volume. The nodes operate with very low duty cycle due to limited energy. Ideally these sensor networks will be massive in size and dense in order to promote redundancy. In addition the networks will be collectively intelligent and adaptive. To achieve these goals, distributed sensor networks will require very small,inexpensive nodes that run for long periods of time on very little energy. One component of such network nodes is an A/D converter. An ADC acts as a crucial interface between the sensed environment and the sensor network as a whole. The work presented here focuses on moderate resolution, and moderate speed, but ultra-low-power ADCs. The 6 bit current-mode algorithmic pipelined ADC reported here consumes 8 pJ/bit samples at 0.65V supply and 130 kS/s. The current was chosen as the information carrying quantity instead of voltage as it is more favorable for low-voltage and low-power applications. The reference current chosen was 150nA. All the blocks are using transistors operating in subthreshold or weak inversion region of operation, to work in low-voltage and low current supply. The DNL and INL plots are given in simulation results section. The area of the overall ADC was 0.046 mm2 only.

This research is aimed at assessing the quantitative risks involved with an ethanol pipeline. Pipelines that run from the Midwest, where the vast majority of ethanol is produced, to the target areas where reformulated gasoline is required (California, Texas Gulf Coast, New England Atlantic Coast) will be of particular interest. The goal is to conduct a quantitative risk assessment on the pipeline, truck, and rail transportation modes to these areas. As a result of the quantitative risk assessment, we are able to compare the risk associated with the different modes of transportation for ethanol. In order to perform and compare the quantitative risk assessment, the following challenges are addressed: 1) Identify target areas requiring reformulated gasoline 2) Map detailed route for each transportation mode to all three target areas 3) Perform a quantitative risk assessment for each transportation mode 4) Compare quantitative risk assessment results for each route and transportation mode The focus is on California, Texas Gulf Coast, and New England Atlantic Coast because of the large volume. It is beneficial to look at these areas as opposed to the smaller areas because pipeline transportation requires very large volumes. In order to find a meaningful comparison between all three transportation modes, only the areas with the three large volumes were evaluated. Since the risk assessment is completed using historical data, each route is segmented in a way that is consistent with the data that is available. All of the curves support the hypothesis that pipeline transportation poses the least societal risk when transporting ethanol from the Midwest to target areas. Rail transportation poses the largest amount of societal risk. While overall rail incidents are not as frequent as road incidents, the frequency of a fatality is much higher when an incident does occur.

OpenGL ES 2.0 is the newest 3D graphics technology for hand-held devices established by Khronos. Users need a shading language compiler and a graphics card which is supportive for OpenGL ES 2.0 to develop their application on OpenGL ES 2.0. Without a graphcis processing unit and a corresponding compiler, one can not develop a 3D graphics application based on OpenGL ES 2.0. In order to solve these problems, we proposed an emulator for OpenGL ES 2.0 based on C-language compiler. The proposed emulator applies C-language compiler and CPU to fulfill the specification of OpenGL ES 2.0. With the proposed emulator, application developers can develop a 3D graphics application for OpenGL ES 2.0 without a specific hardware and a corresponding compiler and hardware designers also can compare and debug when designing their own graphics processing unit.

A competitive gas-to-gas trading market has yet to emerge in Asia. Yet in spite of the various barriers and restrictions, the trend of liberalization seems to inevitable. How a natural gas trading market just might develop in East Asia is what this thesis explains and predicts. Moreover, it lays out what the preconditions for the changes are, and what the costs and benefits from such changes may be. Considering Asia’s current market situation, the wholesale competition model could be a practical option for Asia’s gas markets. A critical role in building up the gas-to-gas trading market will be played by China. In the first stage of market liberalization, China alone can be expected to form its own trading hub on its east coast, say in Shanghai. If the transactions of the trading hub work smoothly and the set prices lower than oil-linked gas prices, then other gas-importing countries would likely join the trading hub by interconnecting with a physical pipeline. / text

This study focuses on the Alberta environmental site assessment process for salt contamination resulting from pipeline failures in the boreal forest of Alberta. A complex saltwater spill site is used as a case study to determine the effects of various parameters of interest, including electrical conductivity and sodium adsorption ratio. This study reviews the practical efficacy of the Alberta environmental site assessment process to ensure sites meet the legislated requirement for remediation closure in a timely and environmentally sound manner. The study includes a comparison of various parameters of interest on a case study site collected over a three-year period and reviews available remediation alternatives. The study provides a summary interpretation of how the existing regulatory process affects decisions to ensure site decontamination and sustainability of the boreal forest ecosystem where the upstream oil and gas industry operate, and includes recommendations for policy improvement.

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This bachelor degree study will deal with strategic measurements within sales. It undertakes an empirical evaluation of the two measurement strategy concepts “Sales Pipeline” and “Strike Zone”. Firstly, the study will explain key advantages of implementing the strategic measurements. Secondly and finally, the potential challenges as well as possible ways to overcome them will shape the structure of the study with the purpose to develop a sales process.   The foundation of the study is based on modern market trends, which is influenced on characteristics such as globalization, increased demands from customers and similarities of products and services being offered among suppliers acting on the market. These aspects among others pressures organizations to establish superior strategies in order to create a competitive advantage. The set up of successful strategies commonly entails the process of converting strategic intent into actionable activities as well as being able to measure them. Therefore the concept of measuring is an important key in developing a superior competitive advantage.   The authors worked hand in hand with the organization Saab throughout this study. Therefore, the thesis is a qualitative single case study of the organization. It will specifically investigate Saabs sales process in the market of global defense security, and evaluate key measurable strategies that can be related to their organization. According to the study findings and the analytical results, the conclusion is that both of the theories “Sales Pipeline” and “Strike Zone” will develop the sales process of Saab if the challenges of the theories can be addressed. This would be in terms of composing complements to reach a number of benefits such as an increased close rate, higher efficiency, reduced bottlenecks in the sales process, higher awareness of what types of business cases the organization should select etc.

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