This thesis presents design, fabrication and testing of a number of multi-frequency band microstrip-fed re-configurable microstrip patch antennas. All re-configurable antennas are designed to change from one resonance frequency to another by an electronic control of RF MEMS switches, one at a time. Besides a fixed size slot on the patch, switches are placed in insets for satisfying better input match at each resonance frequency individually. Also some switches are placed into the slot for adding another resonance frequency to change the effective slot-length like effective inset length changing.To actuate the RF MEMS switches in the configured way, DC-stubs are also designed to apply required potential difference between switch ports and the carrier. These stubs exhibit RF-open at switch side to prevent any RF leakage, and DCground on the other side. That RF short-to-open conversion is accomplished together with feed structure / with a taper depending on the feed network selected. All devices introduced here are built by Microwave Research Group in Electrical and Electronics Department, Middle East Technical University. Depending on the sensitivity of structure, some devices are built by RF MEMS group in Microelectronic Production Plant for MEMS (METU &amp / #8211 / MET) during the thesis study. Therefore this study is the continuation of the first national work on fabrication of RF MEMS devices.

It is estimated that networked devices consumed about 150 TWh of electricity in 2006 in the U.S. which has cost around $15 billion and contributed about 225 billion lbs of CO 2 to greenhouse gas emissions. About 13.5% of this energy is consumed by network equipment such as switches and routers. This thesis addresses the energy consumption of Ethernet, and designs and evaluates improvements on existing methods to reduce the energy consumption of Ethernet links and switches. Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) is an emerging IEEE 802.3 standard which allows Ethernet links to sleep when idle. In this thesis, a performance evaluation of EEE is completed. This evaluation replicates previous work by Reviriego et al. in an independent manner. The performance evaluation shows that EEE overhead results in less energy savings than expected. A new method based on Packet Coalescing is developed and evaluated to improve the energy efficiency of EEE. Packet Coalescing bursts packets such that EEE overhead is minimized. The results show that EEE with Packet Coalescing for 10 Gb/s Ethernet can achieve very close to ideal (or energy proportional) performance at the expense of an insignificant added per packet delay. Periodically Paused Switched Ethernet (PPSE) was previously proposed and prototyped by Blanquicet and Christensen in 2008. PPSE uses periodically sent notification packets to halt packet transmission into a LAN Switch and thus allowing the switch to sleep periodically. In this thesis, a first performance evaluation of PPSE is completed. The evaluation in this thesis shows that a PPSE for 10 Gb/s Ethernet LAN Switches achieves either significant energy savings at the expense of an excessive packet delay, or less than expected savings with a less than human response time added per-packet delay. An improvement to PPSE (Adaptive PPSE) is proposed and developed based on an adaptive policy. The adaptive policy considers past traffic load to determine whether to put the switch to sleep or not. The evaluation shows that Adaptive PPSE can achieve very close to ideal performance at the expense of an added average per packet delay which is less than half of the human response time.

In a System on a Chip (SoC), interconnect is the factor limiting Performance, Power, Area and Schedule (PPAS). Distributed crossbar switches also called as Switching Central Resources (SCR) are often used to implement high performance interconnect in a SoC – Network on a Chip (NoC). Multiple issue bus protocols like AXI (from ARM), VBUSM (from TI) are used in paths critical to the performance of the whole chip. Experimental analysis of effects on PPAS by architectural modifications to the SCRs is carried out, using synthesis tools and Texas Instruments (TI) in house power estimation tools. The effects of scaling of SCR sizes are discussed in this report. These results provide a quick means of estimation for architectural changes in the early design phase. Apart from SCR design, the other major domain, which is a concern, is deadlocks. Deadlocks are situations where the network resources are suspended waiting for each other. In this report various kinds of deadlocks are classified and their respective mitigations in such networks are provided. These analyses are necessary to qualify distributed SCR interconnect, which uses multiple issue protocols, across all scenarios of transactions. The entire analysis in this report is carried out using a flagship product of Texas Instruments. This ASIC SoC is a complex wireless base station developed in 2010- 2011, having 20 major cores. Since the parameters of crossbar switches with multiple issue bus protocols are commonly used in SoCs across the semiconductor industry, this reports provides us a strong basis for architectural/design selection and validation of all such high performance device interconnects. This report can be used as a seed for the development of an interface tool for architects. For a given architecture, the tool suggests architectural modifications, and reports deadlock situations. This new tool will aid architects to close design problems and bring provide a competitive specification very early in the design cycle. A working algorithm for the tool development is included in this report. / text

The habilitation thesis covers theoretical investigations on light-induced processes in molecules. The study is focussed on changes of the molecular electronic structure and geometry, caused either by photoexcitation in the event of a spectroscopic analysis, or by a selective control with shaped laser pulses. The applied and developed methods are predominantly based on quantum chemistry as well as on electron and nuclear quantum dynamics, and in parts on molecular dynamics. The studied scientific problems deal with stereoisomerism and the question of how to either switch or distinguish chiral molecules using laser pulses, and with the essentials for the simulation of the spectroscopic response of biochromophores, in order to unravel their photophysics. The accomplished findings not only explain experimental results and extend existing approaches, but also contribute significantly to the basic understanding of the investigated light-driven molecular processes. The main achievements can be divided in three parts: First, a quantum theory for an enantio- and diastereoselective or, in general, stereoselective laser pulse control was developed and successfully applied to influence the chirality of molecular switches. The proposed axially chiral molecules possess different numbers of "switchable" stable chiral conformations, with one particular switch featuring even a true achiral "off"-state which allows to enantioselectively "turn on" its chirality. Furthermore, surface mounted chiral molecular switches with several well-defined orientations were treated, where a newly devised highly flexible stochastic pulse optimization technique provides high stereoselectivity and efficiency at the same time, even for coupled chirality-changing degrees of freedom. Despite the model character of these studies, the proposed types of chiral molecular switches and, all the more, the developed basic concepts are generally applicable to design laser pulse controlled catalysts for asymmetric synthesis, or to achieve selective changes in the chirality of liquid crystals or in chiroptical nanodevices, implementable in information processing or as data storage. Second, laser-driven electron wavepacket dynamics based on ab initio calculations, namely time-dependent configuration interaction, was extended by the explicit inclusion of magnetic field-magnetic dipole interactions for the simulation of the qualitative and quantitative distinction of enantiomers in mass spectrometry by means of circularly polarized ultrashort laser pulses. The developed approach not only allows to explain the origin of the experimentally observed influence of the pulse duration on the detected circular dichroism in the ion yield, but also to predict laser pulse parameters for an optimal distinction of enantiomers by ultrashort shaped laser pulses. Moreover, these investigations in combination with the previous ones provide a fundamental understanding of the relevance of electric and magnetic interactions between linearly or non-linearly polarized laser pulses and (pro-)chiral molecules for either control by enantioselective excitation or distinction by enantiospecific excitation. Third, for selected light-sensitive biological systems of central importance, like e.g. antenna complexes of photosynthesis, simulations of processes which take place during and after photoexcitation of their chromophores were performed, in order to explain experimental (spectroscopic) findings as well as to understand the underlying photophysical and photochemical principles. In particular, aspects of normal mode mixing due to geometrical changes upon photoexcitation and their impact on (time-dependent) vibronic and resonance Raman spectra, as well as on intramolecular energy redistribution were addressed. In order to explain unresolved experimental findings, a simulation program for the calculation of vibronic and resonance Raman spectra, accounting for changes in both vibrational frequencies and normal modes, was created based on a time-dependent formalism. In addition, the influence of the biochemical environment on the electronic structure of the chromophores was studied by electrostatic interactions and mechanical embedding using hybrid quantum-classical methods. Environmental effects were found to be of importance, in particular, for the excitonic coupling of chromophores in light-harvesting complex II. Although the simulations for such highly complex systems are still restricted by various approximations, the improved approaches and obtained results have proven to be important contributions for a better understanding of light-induced processes in biosystems which also adds to efforts of their artificial reproduction. / Die Habilitationsschrift behandelt theoretische Untersuchungen von durch Licht ausgelösten Prozessen in Molekülen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf Veränderungen in der Elektronenstruktur und der Geometrie der Moleküle, die durch Bestrahlung mit Licht entweder bei einer spektroskopischen Untersuchung oder bei gezielter Kontrolle durch geformte Laserpulse herbeigeführt werden. Um die dabei auftretende Elektronen- und Kerndynamik zu simulieren, wurden vornehmlich quantentheoretische Methoden eingesetzt und weiterentwickelt. Die wissenschaftlichen Fragestellungen beschäftigen sich mit dem gezielten Verändern und dem Erkennen der räumlichen Struktur von Molekülen ohne Drehspiegelachse, der sog. molekularen Chiralität, sowie mit durch Licht eingeleiteten Prozessen in biologisch relevanten Pigmenten auf sehr kurzen Zeitskalen. Die entwickelten Ansätze und gewonnenen Erkenntnisse lassen sich drei Haupterfolge unterteilen: Erstens gelang die Entwicklung einer generellen Kontrolltheorie für das Ein- und Umschalten von molekularer Chiralität mit geformten Laserpulsen. Dabei wird die räumliche Struktur der vorgeschlagenen molekularen Schalter zwischen ihren stabilen sog. stereoisomeren Formen selektiv geändert, was sich auf ihre optischen und chemischen Eigenschaften auswirkt. Für komplexere Bedingungen, wie z.B. auf einer Oberfläche verankerten molekularen Schaltern verschiedener Orientierung, wurde eine neue Pulsoptimierungsmethode basierend auf Wahrscheinlichkeiten und Statistik entwickelt. Solche laserpulskontrollierten chiralen molekularen Schalter hofft man u.a. in der Nanotechnologie zum Einsatz zu bringen, wo sie z.B. als Informationsspeicher dienen könnten. Zweitens konnte geklärt werden, welche die wesentlichen Einflüsse sind, die das Erkennen von sog. Enantiomeren, das sind spiegelbildliche Moleküle von entgegengesetzter Chiralität, nach Ionisierung durch ultrakurze zirkular polarisierte Laserpulse ermöglichen. Diese Form des sog. Zirkulardichroismus in der Ionenausbeute erlaubt die quantitative und qualitative Unterscheidung von Enantiomeren in der Massenspektrometrie. Durch Simulation der Elektronendynamik während der Laseranregung konnte u.a. erstmals gezeigt werden, dass neben der Zirkularpolarisation der Laserpulse vor allem die schwachen magnetischen Wechselwirkungen für die Unterscheidung entscheidend sind. Drittens wurden die Spektren von in der Natur vorkommenden Pigmenten simuliert, welche u.a. an wichtigen biologischen Funktionen, wie dem Sammeln von Sonnenenergie für die Photosynthese, beteiligt sind. Die Lichtanregung führt dabei zu einer Veränderung der Elektronenstruktur und Geometrie der Pigmente, wobei letzteres wichtige Konsequenzen für die Verteilung der Energie auf die spektroskopisch beobachteten Molekülschwingungen mit sich bringen. Auch der wichtige Einfluss der biochemischen Umgebung auf die Elektronenstruktur der Pigmente bzw. den Energietransfer zwischen solchen wurde untersucht. Neben der Klärung experimenteller Ergebnisse ermöglichen die Untersuchungen neue Einblicke in die fundamentalen Prozesse kurz nach der Lichtanregung -- Erkenntnisse, die auch für die technische Nachahmung der biologischen Funktionen von Bedeutung sein können.

In this thesis, novel designs for adaptive power amplifiers, capable of maintaining excellent performance at dissimilar signal parameters, are presented. These designs result in electronically reconfigurable, single-ended and Doherty power amplifiers (DPA) that efficiently sustain functionality at different driving signal levels, highly varying time domain characteristics and wide-spread frequency bands. The foregoing three contexts represent those dictated by the diverse standards of modern communication systems. Firstly, two prototypes for a harmonically-tuned reconfigurable matching network using discrete radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches and semiconductor varactors will be introduced. Following that is an explanation of how the varactor-based matching network was used to develop a high performance reconfigurable Class F-1 power amplifier. Afterwards, a systematic design procedure for realizing an electronically reconfigurable DPA capable of operating at arbitrary centre frequencies, average power levels and back-off efficiency enhancement power ranges is presented. Complete sets of closed-form equations are outlined which were used to build tunable matching networks that compensate for the deviation of the Doherty distributed elements under the desired deployment scenarios. Off-the-shelf RF MEMS switches are used to realize the reconfigurability of the adaptive Doherty amplifiers. Finally, based on the derived closed-form equations, a tri-band, monolithically integrated DPA was realized using the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (CPFC??) GaN500 monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) process. Successful integration of high power, high performance RF MEMS switches within the MMIC process paved the way for the realization of the frequency-agile, integrated version of the adaptive Doherty amplifier.

Pin1 is an enzyme central to cell signaling pathways because it catalyzes the cis–trans isomerization of the peptide ω-bond in phosphorylated serine/threonine-proline motifs in many proteins. This regulatory function makes Pin1 a drug target in the treatment of various diseases. The effects of phosphorylation on Pin1 substrates and the basis for Pin1 recognition are not well understood. The conformational consequences of phosphorylation on Pin1 substrate analogues and the mechanism of recognition by the catalytic domain of Pin1 were determined using molecular dynamics simulations. Phosphorylation perturbs the backbone conformational space of Pin1 substrate analogues. It is also shown that Pin1 recognizes specific conformations of its substrate by conformational selection. Dynamical correlated motions in the free Pin1 enzyme are present in the enzyme of the enzyme–substrate complex when the substrate is in the transition state configuration. This suggests that these motions play a significant role during catalysis. These results provide a detailed mechanistic understanding of Pin1 substrate recognition that can be exploited for drug design purposes and further our understanding of the subtleties of post-translational phosphorylation and cis–trans isomerization. Results from accelerated molecular dynamics simulations indicate that catalysis occurs along a restricted path of the backbone configuration of the substrate, selecting specific subpopulations of the conformational space of the substrate in the active site of Pin1. The simulations show that the enzyme–substrate interactions are coupled to the state of the prolyl peptide bond during catalysis. The transition-state configuration of the substrate binds better than the cis and trans states to the catalytic domain of Pin1. This suggests that Pin1 catalyzes its substrate by noncovalently stabilizing the transition state. These results suggest an atomistic detail understanding of the catalytic mechanism of Pin1 that is necessary for the design of novel inhibitors and the treatment of several diseases. Additionally, a set of constant force biased molecular dynamics simulations are presented to explore the kinetic properties of a Pin1 substrate and its unphosphorylated analogue. The simulations indicate that the phosphorylated Pin1 substrate isomerizes slower than the unphosphorylated analogue. This is due to the lower diffusion constant for the phosphorylated Pin1 substrate.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / John Papapolymerou, Committee Chair ; Joy Laskar, Committee Member ; John Cressler, Committee Member ; Alan Doolittle, Committee Member ; Clifford Henderson, Committee Member.

Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία, η οποία εκπονήθηκε στο Εργαστήριο Ηλεκτρομηχανικής Μετατροπής Ενέργειας του Τμήματος Ηλεκτρολόγων Μηχανικών και Τεχνολογίας Υπολογιστών της Πολυτεχνικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών, πραγματεύεται την κατασκευή ενός επιβατηγού ανελκυστήρα σε μικρή κλίμακα. Σκοπός είναι η μελέτη και η κατασκευή της μικρογραφίας ενός ανελκυστήρα για την μεταφορά προσώπων, του οποίου η λειτουργία θα ελέγχεται μέσω τυπωμένου κυκλώματος. Αρχικά παρατίθεται μια σύντομη ανάλυση της ιστορίας των ανελκυστήρων, τα κυριότερα μέρη τους, των διαφόρων κατηγοριών που υπάρχουν αλλά και κάποιων βασικών στοιχείων τους. Στη συνέχεια, περιγράφεται η αρχή λειτουργίας των ασύγχρονων τριφασικών κινητήρων και παρουσιάζονται τα βασικά κατασκευαστικά χαρακτηριστικά και τα είδη αυτών. Ακολουθεί μια σύντομη περιγραφή του μικροεπεξεργαστή που χρησιμοποιήθηκε, καθώς και των δυνατοτήτων που προσφέρει. Το επόμενο βήμα είναι η ανάλυση της λογικής που θα ακολουθεί ο ανελκυστήρας κατά την λειτουργία του, η περιγραφή των εξαρτημάτων που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για την υλοποίηση της παραπάνω λογικής αλλά και του τρόπου σύνδεση τους με τους ακροδέκτες των δυο μικροελεγκτών. Για την ευκολότερη υλοποίηση της λογικής που υιοθετήθηκε, σχεδιάστηκαν και κατασκευάστηκαν δύο τυπωμένα κυκλώματα. Το πρώτο ελέγχει όλα τα στοιχεία που υπάρχουν στο εσωτερικό του θαλάμου, ενώ το δεύτερο όσα βρίσκονται εξωτερικά και συγκεκριμένα τα μπουτόν κλήσης των ορόφων, τους αισθητήρες προσέγγισης και τα ρελέ που οδηγούν τον κινητήρα. Επιπλέον, γίνεται μια σύντομη αναφορά στο δίκτυο CAN το οποίο χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την επικοινωνία των τυπωμένων κυκλωμάτων που κατασκευάστηκαν. Επίσης, παρατίθονται τα πλήρη διαγράμματα ροής του κώδικα και τα σχέδια των τυπωμένων κυκλωμάτων. Τέλος, ακολουθούν τα συμπεράσματα από την λειτουργία της κατασκευής και τα σχόλια για μελλοντικές βελτιώσεις. / The purpose of this thesis is the construction of a passenger elevator in a small scale. The work was conducted in the Laboratory of Electromechanical Energy Conversion, in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Patras. The main aim is the study and the construction of the miniature of an elevator for transporting persons, whose function will be controlled through printed circuit boards. Initially, there is a brief overview of the history and the main parts of elevators, along with the various categories in which they are divided. Secondly, the construction of three-phase asynchronous motors, their types and the principle of their operation are described. In addition, there is a short description of the microprocessor which is used and its capabilities, in order to facilitate the study and design of the structure. Furthermore, the logic of the elevator, the elements which are necessary to implement the above logic and how to connect them to the pins of the two microcontrollers are given. For easier implementation of the logic which was adopted, two printed circuits were designed and manufactured. The first circuit controls all the elements that exist inside the cabin, and the second controls the call buttons on every floor, the proximity sensors and the relays which drive the motor. Moreover, there is a brief reference to the CAN network which is used for the communication of the microcontrollers. The full flow chart of the code and the schematics of the printed-circuit boards are also provided. Finally, the conclusions that derive from the construction and the operation of the elevator are presented and future improvements concerning the construction are proposed.

This thesis is concerned with terahertz (THz) technology from both optical and electronic approaches. On the optical front, the investigation of optimised photoconductive switches included the characterisation, fabrication and testing of devices which can generate and detect THz radiation over the frequency range from DC to ~ 2.5 THz. These devices incorporated semiconductor photoconductors grown under low temperature (LT) Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) conditions and using distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). The material properties were studied via numerous characterisation techniques which included Hall Effect and mid infrared reflections. Antenna structures were fabricated on the surface of the active layers and pulsed/continuous wave (CW) signal absorbed by these structures (under bias) generates photocurrent. With the help of the DBRs at certain wavelengths (800 nm and 1550 nm), the absorption coefficient at the corresponding illumination wavelength increased thus leading to significant increase of the THz output power while the materials kept the desirable photoconductive material properties such as high dark resistivity and high electron mobility. The inclusion of DBRs resulted in more than doubling of the THz peak signals across the entire operating frequency range and significant improvements in the relative THz power. For the THz electronic approach, a new type of InP-based Asymmetric Spacer Tunnel Diode (ASPAT), which can be used for high frequency detector, was studied. The asymmetric DC characteristics for this novel tunnel diode showed direct compatibility with high frequency zero-bias detector applications. The devices also showed an extreme thermal stability (less than 7.8% current change from 77 K to 400 K) as the main carrier transport mechanism of the ASPAT was tunnelling. Physical models for this ASPAT diode were developed for both DC (direct current) and AC (alternating current) simulations using the TCAD software tool SILVACO. The simulated DC results showed almost perfect matches with measurements across the entire temperature range from 77 K to 400 K. From RF (radio frequency) measurements, the intrinsic diode parameters were extracted and compared with measured data. The simulated zero biased detector circuits operating at 100 GHz and 240 GHz using the new InGaAs-AlAs ASPAT diode (4*4 micrometer square) showed comparable voltage sensitivities to state of the art Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) detectors but with the added advantage of excellent thermal stability.

Ce mémoire est consacré à la conception et la caractérisation de molécules, matériaux et dispositifs électroniques commutables incorporant le système photochrome diméthyldihydropyrène (DHP) / cyclophanediène (CPD). La première partie est dédiée à la synthèse et à la caractérisation de photochromes originaux basés sur l'unité diméthyldihydropyrène. En particulier, la modification chimique de ce motif par des groupements électroattracteurs de type pyridinium induit une nette amélioration des cinétiques de conversion photoinduites tout en constituant une unité aisément fonctionnalisable. Dans une seconde partie, le motif photochrome est associé à des complexes métalliques dérivés du ligand terpyridine qui confèrent des propriétés rédox à l'architecture moléculaire. Ces assemblages sont mis en œuvre pour la conception de films minces organisés obtenus par auto-assemblage de métallopolymères sur des surfaces solides. Les complexes et les films étudiés possèdent des propriétés photochromes et une activité rédox particulièrement prometteuses pour la conception de matériaux et dispositifs moléculaires multicommutables. Enfin, nous présentons l'étude de la conductance des isomères DHP et CPD. Un dispositif électronique à molécule unique a ainsi été mis en œuvre en utilisant le motif photochrome fonctionnalisé par deux unités pyridine, utilisées comme fonctions d'ancrage dans le dispositif. Il apparaît que l'isomère DHP possède une conductance d'environ quatre ordres de grandeur supérieurs à celle de l'isomère CPD correspondant. Ces deux états peuvent être commutés de manière très reproductible par application de stimulus optiques et thermiques. / This thesis is devoted to the design and characterization of switchable molecular systems (molecules, materials and electronic devices) incorporating the dimethyldihydropyrene / cyclophanediene (DHP/CPD) photochromic couple. The first part deals with the synthesis and characterization of original photochromic molecules based on the dimethyldihydropyrene unit. In particular, the chemical functionalisation of these molecular systems with electron-withdrawal pyridinium groups leads to an improvement of the kinetics of photo-induced conversion while providing an easily functionalizable unit, for example with metal cations complexing units. In the second part, the photochromic core is covalently linked with metal complexes based on terpyridine derivatives, conferring redox-active properties to the molecular architecture. These assemblies are applied for the design of organized thin films obtained by self-assembly of metallopolymers on solid surfaces. The model complexes and films display photochromic properties and redox activity particularly promising for the design of responsive materials and molecular devices. Finally, we present the study of the conductance of the isomers DHP and CPD. A single molecule electronic device in which individual molecules are utilized as active electronic components has been implemented using the photochromic group functionalized with two pyridine units, used as anchoring functions. It appears that the DHP isomer has a conductance of about four orders of magnitude higher than the corresponding isomer CPD. These two states can be switched very reproducibly and reversibly upon application of optical and thermal stimulus.