Noninvasive pulse oximetry represents an area of potential interest to the army, because it could provide cost-effective, safe, fast and real-time physiological assessment in a combat injured soldier. Consequently, there is a need to develop a reliable, battery-powered, wearable pulse oximeter to acquire and process photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals using an optimized sensor configuration. A key requirement in the optimal design of a wearable wireless pulse oximeter is low power management without compromising signal quality. This research investigated the advantage gained by increasing the area of the photodetector and decreasing the light emitting diode (LED) driving currents to reduce the overall power requirement of a reflectance mode pulse oximeter sensor. In vitro and preliminary in vivo experiments were conducted to evaluate a multiple photodetector reflectance sensor setup to simulate a varying detection area. It was concluded that a reflection pulse oximeter sensor employing a large area photodetector is preferred over a similar transmission type sensor for extending the battery life of a wireless pulse oximeter intended for future telemedicine applications.

Pulse oximetry is used to measure heart rate (HR) and arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) from photoplethysmographic (PPG) waveforms. PPG waveforms are highly sensitive to motion artifact (MA), limiting the implementation of pulse oximetry in mobile physiological monitoring using wearable devices. Previous studies have shown that multichannel pulse oximetry can successfully acquire diverse signal information during simple, repetitive motion, thus leading to differences in motion tolerance across channels. In this study, we introduce a multichannel forehead-mounted pulse oximeter and investigate the performance of this novel sensor under a variety of intense motion artifacts. We have developed a multichannel template-matching algorithm that chooses the channel with the least amount of motion artifact to calculate HR and SpO2 every 2 seconds. We show that for a wide variety of random motion, channels respond differently to motion, and the multichannel estimate outperforms single channel estimates in terms of motion tolerance, signal quality, and HR and SpO2 error. Based on 31 data sets of PPG waveforms corrupted by random motion, the mean relative HR error was decreased by an average of 5.6 bpm when the multichannel-switching algorithm was compared to the worst performing channel. The percentage of HR measurements with absolute errors ≤ 5 bpm during motion increased by an average of 27.8 % when the multichannel-switching algorithm was compared to the worst performing channel. Similarly, the mean relative SpO2 error was decreased by an average of 4.3 % during motion when the multichannel-switching algorithm was compared to each individual channel. The percentage of SpO2 measurements with absolute error ≤ 3 % during motion increased by an average of 40.7 % when the multichannel-switching algorithm was compared to the worst performing channel. Implementation of this multichannel algorithm in a wearable device will decrease dropouts in HR and SpO2 measurements during motion. Additionally, the differences in motion frequency introduced across channels observed in this study shows precedence for future multichannel-based algorithms that make pulse oximetry measurements more robust during a greater variety of intense motion.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Este trabalho descreve o desenvolvimento e a construção de um gerador de pulsos de 8 canais, com interface para controle externo por microcomputador. O gerador possui 16 passos programáveis definindo a largura do pulso entre 200 ns e 10 segundos. Permite também a repetição automática de um intervalo selecionado. O microcomputador tem controle total do gerador de pulsos, incluindo programação de memórias e execução e interrupção de sequências de pulsos. Este gerador foi construído para ser usado em experiências de Ressonância Magnética Nuclear Pulsada, no controle de portas de RF e sistema de detecção / This work describes the development and construction of a 8 channel pulse generator with interface for external microcomputer control. The generator has 16 programmable steps defining pulse widths between 200 nsec and 10 seconds, with 100 nsec resolution. Automatic repeat of a selected step range is also provided. The microcomputer has full control of the pulse generator including programing of memories, execution and interruption of pulse sequences. The generator was built to be used in Pulsed Nuclear Magnetic Resonance experiments to control the high Power RF gate and the detection system

<p>The aim of this master's thesis is to develop a method that fully automates a trimming step in the production of a fiber-optical power spectrometer, based on a unique Acusto-Optical Scanning Filter.</p><p>The filter is created by letting an ultrasonic mechanical pulse pass through a chirped Fiber Bragg Grating. The pulse introduces a disturbance in the grating, creating a thin optical transmission window in the otherwise reflective bandwidth. The high demands on the window requires a precise, unit dependent pulse form with unknown properties. Thus each unit needs to be trimmed to reach required performance.</p><p>The manual trimming is largely a trial and error process, that contains two performance tests. We redefine one, eliminating the need to reroute the optical path and reducing the number of fiber weldings. The tests are then quantified, allowing a figure of merit to be based on weighted performance values.</p><p>A brute force method, testing a large set of pulses, is implemented. The set is defined by the parameter space spanned by previously produced units. Due to the large space, the method is too time consuming. Instead it is used to measure the performance spaces of three units. An attempt to largely reduce the parameter space using PCA failed.</p><p>An alternating variables method that finds local performance optima in the parameter space is developed. By using a set of several starting points, the method tends to find several qualified pulses. The method is implemented and successfully verified by trimming new units.</p><p>Finally we propose where to focus improvements of the method in a production ramp up.</p>

The ability of a propulsion system is very crucial for the capability of a missile or a rocket system. Unlike liquid propellant rocket motors, the only control mechanism of the thrust value is the propellant geometry in solid propellant rocket motors. When the operation of solid propellant rocket motor has started, it cannot be stopped anymore. For this main reason the advance of dual pulse motor technology has started. The aim of this study is to investigate the geometrical effects of design parameters on the flow behavior of a dual pulse solid propellant rocket motor by using commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. For the CFD analysis, a generic dual pulse rocket motor model is constituted. Within this model, initially four different geometry alternatives of Pulse Separation Device (PSD) are analyzed. To begin PSD analyses, mesh sensitivity analyses are performed on one PSD geometry alternative. By defined grid size, the analyses of PSD geometry alternatives are performed. Computed results were compared in terms of flow behavior (flow streamlines, velocity distribution, turbulent kinetic energy&hellip / etc.) with each other. With the selected PSD geometry alternative the effects of L/D ratio (Length/Diameter ratio) of first pulse chamber, Achamb/APSD ratio (Chamber area/PSD opening area) and APSD/Ath ratio (PSD opening area/Throat area) on the flow behavior is investigated. Flow analyses are performed by simulating the unsteady flow of second pulse operation. With the performed analyses, it is aimed to identify generic geometric definitions for a dual pulse rocket motor.

The aim of this master's thesis is to develop a method that fully automates a trimming step in the production of a fiber-optical power spectrometer, based on a unique Acusto-Optical Scanning Filter. The filter is created by letting an ultrasonic mechanical pulse pass through a chirped Fiber Bragg Grating. The pulse introduces a disturbance in the grating, creating a thin optical transmission window in the otherwise reflective bandwidth. The high demands on the window requires a precise, unit dependent pulse form with unknown properties. Thus each unit needs to be trimmed to reach required performance. The manual trimming is largely a trial and error process, that contains two performance tests. We redefine one, eliminating the need to reroute the optical path and reducing the number of fiber weldings. The tests are then quantified, allowing a figure of merit to be based on weighted performance values. A brute force method, testing a large set of pulses, is implemented. The set is defined by the parameter space spanned by previously produced units. Due to the large space, the method is too time consuming. Instead it is used to measure the performance spaces of three units. An attempt to largely reduce the parameter space using PCA failed. An alternating variables method that finds local performance optima in the parameter space is developed. By using a set of several starting points, the method tends to find several qualified pulses. The method is implemented and successfully verified by trimming new units. Finally we propose where to focus improvements of the method in a production ramp up.

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This thesis contains two components of research: studies of supercontinuum pulses generated in the novel microstructure fiber, and research on spatio-temporal coupling in ultrafast laser beams. One of the most exciting developments in optics in recent years has been the invention of the microstructure optical fiber. By controlling the structural parameters of these novel fibers in design and manufacturing, their dispersion profile can be freely tailored, opening up a huge application base. One particularly interesting effect in the microstructure fiber is the generation of ultrabroadband supercontinuum with only nJ-level Ti:sapphire oscillator pulse pump. This supercontinuum is arguably the most complicated ultrafast pulse ever generated, with its huge time-bandwidth product (> 1000 from a 16-cm-long fiber). Although many applications have been demonstrated or envisioned with this continuum, its generation is a very complicated process that is poorly understood, and the characteristics of the continuum pulses are not clearly known. In this work, we make a full-intensity-and-phase measurement of the continuum pulses using cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating (XFROG). The results reveal surprising unstable fine spectral structure in the continuum pulses, which is confirmed by single-shot measurements. Our study on the coherence of the continuum, on the other hand, shows that the spectral phase of the supercontinuum is fairly stable. Numerical simulations are carried out whose results are in good agreement with experiments. The second component of this thesis is the study of spatio-temporal coupling in ultrafast beams. We propose two definitions of spatial chirp, point out their respective physical meanings, and derive their relationship. On the common perception of the equivalence between pulse-front tilt and angular dispersion, we show that the equivalence only holds for plane waves. We establish a generalized theory of ultrafast laser beams with first-order spatio-temporal couplings, and discover a new pulse-front tilt effect associated with the combination of spatial chirp and temporal chirp. For the measurement of spatio-temporal distortions, the effects of such distortions in the input beam to a GRENOUILLE trace are carefully studied. An algorithm is proposed and tested to retrieve information about the distortions from the GRENOUILLE trace.

A new pulse-retrieval software for Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating (FROG) technique has been developed. The new software extends the capacity of the original FROG algorithm in two major categories. First is a new method to determine the uncertainty of the retrieved pulse field in FROG technique. I proposed a simple, robust, and general technique?tstrap method?ch places error bars on the intensity and phase of the retrieved pulse field. The bootstrap method was also extended to automatically detect ambiguities in the FROG pulse retrieval. The second improvement deals with the spatiotemporal effect of the input laser beam on the measured GRENOUILLE trace. I developed a new algorithm to retrieve the pulse information, which includes both pulse temporal field and the spatiotemporal parameters, from the spatiotemporal distorted GRENOUILLE trace. It is now possible to have a more complete view of an ultrashort pulse. I also proposed a simple method to remove the spatial profile influence of the input laser beam on the GRENOUILLE trace. The new method extends the capacity of GRENOUILLE technique to measure the beams with irregular spatial profiles.