Electron beam induced current (EBIC) and atom probe tomography (APT) were used in this study to determine electrical activities and impurity compositions at extended defects in multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) samples. The results provide, for the first time, information regarding the chemical species present at defects whose electrical activity has previously been measured. A new APT specimen fabrication process was developed with the ability to select a specific defect for APT analysis. Development of the APT specimen fabrication process proceeded by first selecting and optimising the preferential etching for nano-scale defect delineation. Three etchants were evaluated, namely Secco, Sirtl and Dash, from which the Secco etch was selected. Three parameters were optimised to produce etch pits with geometries that meet the requirements imposed by APT specimen fabrication methods. The optimum parameters were 0.05M potassium dichromate concentration, 20°C etch temperature, and 30sec etch time. In the second stage, marking techniques were developed in order for the defects to be located throughout the APT specimen fabrication process. However, it became apparent that the conventional APT specimen fabrication method could not be used to fabricate APT specimens containing selected defects in a mc-Si sample. This led to the development of a novel APT specimen fabrication approach which allowed APT specimens to be fabricated, reproducibly, containing grain boundaries and isolated dislocations. In order to evaluate accurately iron contamination in mc-Si, four atom probe parameters were optimised to maximise detection sensitivity: the evaporation rate, the laser beam energy, the pulse repetition rate and the specimen temperature. The optimisation process can be divided in to two parts. In the first part, a matrix of pre-sharpened single-crystal silicon specimens was subjected to a variety of experimental parameters. The optimised parameters were determined to be 0.3% evaporation rate, 0.5nJ beam energy, 160kHz repetition rate and 55K specimen temperature. The second part was to determine the iron detection efficiency –the percentage of detected Fe ions that can be correctly identified as Fe– and sensitivity using these parameters to analyse a specially prepared iron calibration specimen. The values were determined to be a detection efficiency of about 35% and sensitivity of 54ppm or 2.70x10¹⁸ atom/cm³. The APT specimen fabrication process and the optimised APT analysis parameters were used to analyse four extended defects in mc-Si samples subjected to three different processing conditions, namely gold-contaminated, as-grown and phosphorus diffusion gettering (PDG). The important aspects of the analysis are listed below: • Gold was not detected at the grain boundary and its associated dislocations in the gold-contaminated specimen. The binding enthalpy of gold to such defects is thus less than 0.63eV. • Iron was not detected in any specimen. • Copper was observed at the grain boundary in the as-grown specimen in the form of individual atoms as well as clusters with diameters ranging between 4nm and 9nm. The electrical activity of the grain boundary was about 58%. • Nickel and carbon were detected at the grain boundary in the post-PDG specimen with the former having platelet structures with diameters and thicknesses ranging between 4nm-7nm and 2nm-4nm, respectively. The recombination strength of the defect was about 22%. • Two nickel clusters were found at the isolated dislocation in the post-PDG specimen. The clusters were spherical with an average diameter of 10nm. The distance between the two clusters was 35nm. The recombination strength of the defect was about 4%.

Organic photovoltaics have attracted considerable research and commercial interest due to their lightness, mechanical flexibility and low production costs. There are two main approaches for the fabrication of organic solar cells – solution and vacuum processing. The former relies on morphology control in polymer-fullerene blends resulting from natural phase separation in these systems. The latter takes advantage of solvent-free processing allowing highly complex multi-junction architectures similar to inorganic solar cells. This work aims to combine the benefits of both by depositing conjugated polymers using vacuum thermal evaporation. By employing this unconventional approach it aims to enhance the efficiency of organic photovoltaics through increased complexity of the thin-film architecture while improving the nanoscale morphology control of the individual active layers. The thesis explores the vacuum thermal deposition of polythiophenes, mainly poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and side-group free poly(thiophene) (PTh). A variety of chemical techniques, such as NMR, FT-IR, GPC, DSC and TGA, are used to examine the effect of heating on chemical structure of the polymers. Optimal processing parameters are identified and related to the resulting thin-film morphology and charge transport properties. Efficient photovoltaic devices based on polythiophene donors and fullerene acceptors are fabricated. Materials science techniques AFM, XRD, SEM, TEM and MicroXAM are used to characterize topography and morphology of the thin films, and UV-Vis, EQE, I-V and C-V measurements relate these to the optical and electronic properties. The results of the study show that polymer side groups have a strong influence on molecular packing and charge extraction in vacuum-deposited polymer thin films. Unlike P3HT, evaporated PTh forms highly crystalline films. This leads to enhanced charge transport properties with hole mobility two orders of magnitude higher than that in P3HT. The effect of molecular order is demonstrated on polymer/fullerene planar heterojunction solar cells. PTh-based devices have significantly better current and recombination characteristics, resulting in improved overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) by 70% as compared to P3HT. This confirms that the chemical structure of the molecule is a crucial parameter in deposition of large organic semiconductors. It is also the first-ever example of vacuum-deposited polymer photovoltaic cell. Next, vacuum co-deposited PTh:C60 bulk heterojunctions with different donor-acceptor compositions are fabricated, and the effect of post-production thermal annealing on their photovoltaic performance and morphology is studied. Co-deposition of blended mixtures leads to 60% higher photocurrents than in thickness-optimized PTh/C60 planar heterojunction counterparts. Furthermore, by annealing the devices post-situ the PCE is improved by as much as 80%, achieving performance comparable to previously reported polythiophene and oligothiophene equivalents processed in solution and vacuum, respectively. The enhanced photo-response is a result of favourable morphological development of PTh upon annealing. In contrast to standard vacuum-processed molecular blends, annealing-induced phase separation in PTh:C60 does not lead to the formation of coarse morphology but rather to an incremental improvement of the already established interpenetrated nanoscale network. The morphological response of the evaporated PTh within the blend is further verified to positively differ from that of its small-molecule counterpart sexithiophene. This illustrates the morphological advantage of polymer-fullerene combination over all other vacuum-processable material systems. In conclusion, this processing approach outlines the conceptual path towards the most beneficial combination of solution/polymer- and vacuum-based photovoltaics. It opens up a fabrication method with considerable potential to enhance the efficiency of large-scale organic solar cells production.

Experimental investigations of the optical properties of GaN nanostructured light emitting diode (LED) arrays are presented. Microphotoluminescence spectroscopy with pulsed and continuous wave lasers was used to probe the carrier dynamics and emission mechanisms of nanorod LED arrays fabricated by a top down etching method. Results show a possible reduction in internal electric field as nanorod diameter decreases. Localisation effects were also observed, affecting the spectral shape of the nanorod emission. Under two-photon excitation, quantum dot-like sharp spectral peaks in the PL spectra are found to exist in abundance amongst all the nanorod samples. The optical properties of these localised states, which are shown to be associated with the nanorod free-surfaces, are characterised using non-linear and time resolved spectroscopy. An investigation into spatially resolved single nanorods was also carried out. Single nanorods were isolated, and characterised using pulsed lasers. The etching is shown to increase the carrier decay life-time at extended intervals over several hundred ns. The temporal evolution and excitation power density dependence of the quantum dot-like states are also presented for the first time. The long lived localised states are thought to arise from surface effects, in particular Fermi-surface pinning, causing localisation and spatial separation of carriers. Additional work on nano-pyramid array LEDs, with quantum wells on semi-polar surfaces is also presented. Optical properties using micro-photoluminescence are compared to cathodoluminescence studies. An uneven distribution of emission wavelengths across the pyramid facet is thought to lead to an emission mechanism involving carriers transferring between multiple spatially localised states. Finally, experimental techniques and fabrication methods for future work are documented in detail.

The ultimate goal in the rapidly burgeoning field of spintronics is to realize semiconductor-based devices that utilize the spin degree of freedom of a single charge carrier (electron or hole) or an ensemble of such carriers to achieve novel and/or enhanced device functionalities such as spin based light emitting devices, spin transistors and femto-Tesla magnetic field sensors. These devices share a common feature: they all rely on controlled transport of spins in semiconductors. A prototypical spintronic device has a transistor-like configuration in which a semiconducting channel is sandwiched between two contacts (source and drain) with a gate electrode sitting on top of the channel. Unlike conventional charge-based transistors, the source electrode of a spin transistor is a ferromagnetic (or half-metallic) material which injects spin polarized electrons in the channel. During transit, the spin polarizations of the electrons are controllably rotated by a gate electric field mediated spin-orbit coupling effect. The drain contact is ferromagnetic (or half-metallic) as well and the transmission probability of an electron through this drain electrode depends on the relative orientation of electron spin polarization and the (fixed) magnetization of the drain. When the spins of the electrons are parallel to the drain magnetization, they are transmitted by the drain resulting in a large device current (ON state of spin FET). However, these electrons will be completely blocked if their spins are antiparallel to the drain magnetization, and ideally, in this situation device current will be zero (OFF state of spinFET). Thus, if we vary the gate voltage, we can modulate the channel current by controlling the spin orientations of the electrons with respect to the drain magnetization. This is how transistor action is realized (Datta-Das model). However, during transport, electrons' velocities change randomly with time due to scattering and hence different electrons experience different spin-orbit magnetic fields. As a result, even though all electrons start their journey with identical spin orientations, soon after injection spins of different electrons point along different directions in space. This randomization of initial spin polarization is referred to as spin relaxation and this is detrimental to the spintronic devices. In particular, for Datta-Das transistor, this will lead to inefficient gate control and large leakage current in the OFF state of the spinFET. The aim of this work is to understand various spin relaxation processes that are operative in semiconductor nanostructures and to indicate possible ways of minimizing them. The theoretical aspect of this work (Chapters 2-5) focuses on the D'yakonov-Perel' process of spin relaxation in a semiconductor quantum wire. This process of spin relaxation occurs because during transport electron spin precesses like a spinning top about the spin-orbit magnetic field. We show that the conventional drift-diffusion model of spin transport, which has been used extensively in literature, completely breaks down in case of a quantum confined system (e.g. a quantum wire). Our approach employs a semi-classical model which couples the spin density matrix evolution with the Boltzmann transport equation. Using this model we have thoroughly studied spin relaxation in a semiconductor quantum wire and identified several inconsistencies of the drift-diffusion formalism.The experimental side of this work (Chapters 6-8) deals with two different issues: (a) performing spin transport experiments in order to extract spin relaxation length and time in various materials (e.g. Cu, Alq3) under one-dimensional confinement, and (b) measurement of the ensemble spin dephasing time in self-assembled cadmium sulfide quantum dots using electron spin resonance technique. The spin transport experiment, as described in Chapter 7 of this dissertation, shows that the spin relaxation time in organic semiconductor (Alq3) is extremely long, approaching a few seconds at low temperatures. Alq3 is the chemical formula of tris- 8 hydroxy-quinoline aluminum, which is a small molecular weight organic semiconductor. This material is extensively used in organic display industry as the electron transport and emission layer in green organic light emitting diodes. The long spin relaxation time in Alq3 makes it an ideal platform for spintronics. This also indicates that it may be possible to realize spin based organic light emitting diodes which will have much higher internal quantum efficiency than their conventional non-spin counterparts. From spin transport experiments mentioned above we have also identified Elliott-Yafet mode as the dominant spin relaxation mechanism operative in organic semiconductors. Electron spin resonance experiment performed on self-assembled quantum dots (Chapter 8) allows us to determine the ensemble spin dephasing time (or transverse spin relaxation time) of electrons confined in these systems. In quantum dots electrons are strongly localized in space. Surprisingly, the ensemble spin dephasing time shows an increasing trend as we increase temperature. The most likely explanation for this phenomenon is that spin dephasing in quantum dots (unlike quantum wells and wires) is dominated by nuclear hyperfine interaction, which weakens progressively with temperature. We hope that our work, which elaborates on all of the above mentioned topics in great detail, will be a significant contribution towards the current state of knowledge of subtle spin-based issues operative in nanoscale device structures, and will ultimately lead to realization of novel nano-spintronic devices.

A sensor is a technological device or biological organ that detects, or senses, a signal or physical condition and chemical compounds. Technological developments in the recent decades have brought along with it several environmental problems and human safety issues to the fore. In today's world, therefore, sensors, which detect toxic and inflammable chemicals quickly, are necessary. Gas sensors which form a subclass of chemical sensors have found extensive applications in process control industries and environmental monitoring. The present thesis reports the attempt made in development of Zinc oxide thin film based gas sensors. ZnO is sensitive to many gases of interest like hydrocarbons, hydrogen, volatile organic compounds etc. They exhibit high sensitivity, satisfactory stability and rapid response. In the present work the developed sensors have been tested for their sensitivity for a typical volatile organic compound, acetone. An objective analysis of the various substrates namely borosilicate glass, sintered alumina and hard anodized alumina, has been performed as a part of this work. The substrates were evaluated for their electrical insulation and thermal diffusivity. The microstructure of the gas sensitive film on the above mentioned substrates was studied by SEM technique. The gas sensitive Zinc oxide film is deposited by D.C reactive magnetron sputtering technique with substrate bias arrangement. The characterization of the as-deposited film was performed by XRD, SEM and EDAX techniques to determine the variation of microstructure, crystallite size, orientation and chemical composition with substrate bias voltage. The thesis also describes the development of the gas sensor test setup, which has been used to measure the sensing characteristics of the sensor. It was observed that the ZnO sensors developed with higher bias voltages exhibited improved sensitivity to test gas of interest. Gas sensors essentially measure the concentration of gas in its vicinity. In order to determine the distribution of gas concentration in a region, it is necessary to network sensors at remote locations to a host. The host acts as a gateway to the end user to determine the distribution of gas concentration in a region. However, wireless gas sensor networks have not found widespread use because of two inherent limitations: Metal oxide gas sensors suffer from output drift over time; frequent recalibration of a number of sensors is a laborious task. The gas sensors have to be maintained at a high temperature to perform the task of gas sensing. This is power intensive operation and is not well suited for wireless sensor network. This thesis reports an exploratory study carried out on the applicability of gas sensors in wireless gas sensor network. A simple prototype sensing node has been developed using discrete electronic components. A methodology to overcome the problem of frequent calibration of the sensing nodes, to tackle the sensor drift with ageing, is presented. Finally, a preliminary attempt to develop a strategy for using gas sensor network to localize the point of gas leak is given.

Accurate demand forecasting is a key capability for a manufacturing organization, more so, a semiconductor manufacturer. Many crucial decisions are based on demand forecasts. The semiconductor industry is characterized by very short product lifecycles (10 to 24 months) and extremely uncertain demand. The pace at which both the manufacturing technology and the product design changes, induce change in manufacturing throughput and potential demand. Well known methods like exponential smoothing, moving average, weighted moving average, ARMA, ARIMA, econometric methods and neural networks have been used in industry with varying degrees of success. We propose a novel forecasting technique which is based on Support Vector Regression (SVR). Specifically, we formulate ν-SVR models for semiconductor product demand data. We propose a 3-phased input vector modeling approach to comprehend demand characteristics learnt while building a standard ARIMA model on the data. Forecasting Experimentations are done for different semiconductor product demand data like 32 & 64 bit CPU products, 32bit Micro controller units, DSP for cellular products, NAND and NOR Flash Products. Demand data was provided by SRC(Semiconductor Research Consortium) Member Companies. Demand data was actual sales recorded at every month. Model performance is judged based on different performance metrics used in extant literature. Results of experimentation show that compared to other demand forecasting techniques ν-SVR can significantly reduce both mean absolute percentage errors and normalized mean-squared errors of forecasts. ν-SVR with our 3-phased input vector modeling approach performs better than standard ARIMA and simple ν-SVR models in most of the cases.

xix, 171 p. : ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The field of quantum chaos investigates the quantum mechanical behavior of classically chaotic systems. This dissertation begins by describing an experiment conducted on an apparatus constructed to represent a three dimensional analog of a classically chaotic system. Patterns of reflected light are shown to produce fractals, and the behavior of the fractal dimension D F is shown to depend on the light's ability to escape the apparatus. The classically chaotic system is then used to investigate the conductance properties of semiconductor heterostructures engineered to produce a conducting plane relatively free of impurities and defects. Introducing walls that inhibit conduction to partition off sections considerably smaller than the mean distance between impurities defines devices called 'billiards'. Cooling to low temperatures enables the electrons traveling through the billiard to maintain quantum mechanical phase. Exposure to a changing electric or magnetic field alters the electron's phase, leading to fluctuations in the conductance through the billiard. Magnetoconductance fluctuations in billiards have previously been shown to be fractal. This behavior has been charted using an empirical parameter, Q , that is a measure of the resolution of the energy levels within the billiard. The relationship with Q is shown to extend beyond the ballistic regime into the 'quasi-ballistic' and 'diffusive' regimes, characterized by having defects within the conduction plane. A model analogous to the classically chaotic system is proposed as the origin of the fractal conductance fluctuations. This model is shown to be consistent with experiment and to account for changes of fine scale features in MCF known to occur when a billiard is brought to room temperature between low temperature measurements. An experiment is conducted in which fractal conductance fluctuations (FCF) are produced by exposing a billiard to a changing electric field. Comparison of D F values of FCF produced by electric fields is made to FCF produced by magnetic fields. FCF with high D F values are shown to de-correlate at smaller increments of field than the FCF with lower D F values. This indicates that FCF may be used as a novel sensor of external fields, so the response of FCF to high bias voltages is investigated. / Adviser: Stephen Kevan, Chairperson, Physics; Richard Taylor, Advisor, Physics; Robert Zimmerman, Member, Physics; Stephen Gregory, Member, Physics; David Johnson, Outside Member, Chemistry

Submitted by João Paulo Braga (jpbraga_ibilce@hotmail.com) on 2018-05-10T12:08:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertação.corrigida . Braga.JP...pdf: 4842769 bytes, checksum: 92b7f70c78131d4df05a4710783f132c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Elza Mitiko Sato null (elzasato@ibilce.unesp.br) on 2018-05-10T17:11:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 braga_jp_me_sjrp_int.pdf: 4842769 bytes, checksum: 92b7f70c78131d4df05a4710783f132c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-10T17:11:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 braga_jp_me_sjrp_int.pdf: 4842769 bytes, checksum: 92b7f70c78131d4df05a4710783f132c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-04 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Neste trabalho, foram desenvolvidos e caracterizados transistores de filme fino (TFTs) de óxidos metálicos processados por solução, tendo como camada ativa filmes de óxido de zinco (ZnO), de óxido de zinco dopado com alumínio (AZO) e de óxido de índio e zinco (IZO). Os dispositivos foram construídos sobre substratos de silício dopado tipo p revestido com uma camada isolante de óxido de silício (Si/SiO2), em estruturas do tipo bottom-gate/top-contact, utilizando dois métodos distintos para a deposição da camada ativa: spray-pirólise e spin coating. Os transistores apresentaram excelentes propriedades elétricas, em especial os dispositivos à base de ZnO depositados via spray-pirólise. Esses dispositivos apresentaram valores de mobilidade dos portadores de carga (elétrons), superiores a 5 cm2V-1s-1 e da razão entre a corrente na acumulação e na depleção (IOn/IOff) superiores a 106, o que representa um desempenho bastante competitivo quando comparados com a literatura atual. A influência da exposição dos dispositivos ao oxigênio atmosférico nas propriedades elétricas dos transistores foi estudada através do monitoramento (pelo período de vários dias) do desempenho dos transistores quando caracterizados em atmosfera inerte (N2) ou no ar. Adicionalmente, os dispositivos apresentaram um proeminente efeito de fotoresposta persistente após a exposição à radiação ultravioleta na região do UVA em níveis de intensidade relativamente baixos (abaixo de 10-3 W.m-2), o que sugere uma potencial aplicação em sensores ou dosímetros de radiação UV. / In the present work, thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on solution-processed metal-oxides were developed and characterized, with the active layer comprising zinc oxide (ZnO), aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and indium zinc oxide (IZO). The devices were built on p-type doped silicon substrates with a thermally grown thin-layer of silicon dioxide (Si/SiO2), in a bottom-gate/top-contact structure, using two different active layer deposition methods: spray-pyrolysis and spin coating. The transistors presented excellent electrical properties, especially the ZnObased devices deposited by spray-pyrolysis, with charge carrier mobility superior to 5 cm2V-1s -1 and ratio between the accumulation current and the depletion current (Ion/Ioff) greater than 106 , which represents a very competitive performance compared to values from the current literature. The influence of the exposure to atmospheric oxygen on the transistor electrical properties was studied by monitoring (for several days) the TFT performance when characterized in inert atmosphere (N2) or in air. Additionally, the devices presented a prominent persistent photoresponse effect after the exposure to ultraviolet radiation in the UVA range at relatively low intensities (below 10-3 Wm-2), suggesting a potential application as UV-radiation sensors or dosimeters. / 134107/2016-0

Orientador: Hugo Enrique Hernandez Figueroa / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T12:30:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paixao_OswaldoPedreira_D.pdf: 3002384 bytes, checksum: f5a0e8e8022dabd36cfce9ffdb839f9b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Este trabalho, tem como objetivo o desenvolvimento de novas técnicas, para análise de regime permanente não-autonoma de circuitos de alta-velocidade não-lineares em grande-escala. Para tal, é proposto um novo método do balanço harmônico (BH) fundamentado em uma eficiente metodologia de decomposição multi-níveis, que subdivide um circuito não-linear em grande escala em uma estrutura hierarquica de super-redes (SuRs) esparsamente interconectadas. Mais precisamente, em cada nível de hierarquia, o circuito é composto por SuRs intermediárias, SuRs de fundo, e redes de conexão (RCs). As SuRs de fundo são decompostas em um aglomerado de subredes não-lineares (SRNs) correspondendo a dispositivos semicondutores, que por sua vez, estão envolvidos por uma sub-rede linear (SRL). A equação de estado e de sonda das SuRs de fundo foram obtidas utilizando uma nova metodologia que combina a formulação de espaço de estado (FEE) para as SRNs com a formulação nodal modificada (FNM) para a SRL. Esta metodologia FEE/FNM produz um sistema quadrado de equações com menor tamanho possível. Para realização das conversões do sinal entre os domínios do tempo e da frequência, foram discutidas e implementadas diferentes transformadas de Fourier discreta (TFDs), para operação em regime multi-tons, incluindo sinais com modulação digital. A equação determinante do BH multi-níveis do circuito assume uma estrutura hierarquica do tipo bloco diagonal com borda , que pode ser eficientemente resolvida utilizando técnicas de processamento paralelo. A matriz jacobiana de cada SuR de fundo é processada utilizando eficientes técnicas de matrizes esparsas, junto com o conceito de espectro de derivada. Para a solução da equação determinante, foram utilizados os métodos de Newton e do tensor para problemas de pequena- e média-escala, e os métodos de Newton inexato e do tensor inexato para problemas em grande-escala. A globalização via pesquisa-em-linha com retrocedimento, foi adotada para nestes solucionadores não-lineares. Entretanto, para o método do tensor e do tensor inexato, também foi adotada a técnica de pesquisa-em-linha curvilinear. Nos métodos inexatos, técnicas de pré-condicionamento foram utilizadas, para aumentar a eficiência e a robustez do solucionador linear iterativo em subespaço de Krylov (GMRES, GMRES-Bt e TGMRES-Bt). Finalmente, a formulação proposta foi validada e a eficiência do método do tensor e do tensor inexato comparada com o método de Newton e de Newton inexato, para diferentes topologias de circuitos utilizando diodos, FETs e HBTs, e operando sob diferentes regimes de excitação multi-tons. / Abstract: This work deals with the development of new techniques for nonautonomous nonlinear steady-state analysis of high-speed large-scale integrated circuits. To this end, it is proposed a novel harmonic balance (HB) method fundamented on a efficient multi-level decomposition methodology, that divides a large-scale circuit into hierarchical structure of sparsely interconnected supernetworks (SuNs). More precisely, the circuit is composed by intermediary SuRs, bottom SuRs and connection networks (CNs). The bottom SuNs are decomposed into a cluster of nonlinear subnetworks (NSNs) corresponding to the opto-electronic semiconductor devices, which in turn, are embedded by a linear subnetwork (LSN). Multi-port elements can be included in the LSN, in order to use measured data or results from electromagnetic analysis of structures with complex geometries. The formulation of the bottom SuN state and probe equations uses an improved table-oriented statespace formulation (SSF), that produces a square system with the lowest possible size, which is equal to the number of nonlinear state-variables (branch voltages and currents) that act as argument of the fuctions representing the semiconductor devices nonlinearities. The SSF is compared with the classical modified nodal formulation (MNF). For dealing with signal timefrequency conversions, discrete Fourier transform (DFT) techniques for different multi-tone regimes are discussed, including complex digitally modulated signals. The multi-level HB determining equation of the circuit assumes a hierarchical block bordered structure that can be efficiently tackled by parallel processing techniques. The HB jacobian matrix is handled using efficient sparse matrix techniques with a proper definition of the derivatives spectra. For the solution of a large-size HB problem, we investigated the applications of inexact tensor method based on Krylov-subspace techniques. Preconditioning are used to improve the robustness of the iterative tensor solver. To determine the circuit DC regime, we employ the tensor method. We adopted the backtracking linesearch technique as a globalisation strategy. However, for the tensor method, in particular, a curvilinear linesearch was also implemented. Finally, the formulation was validated and, the tensor and inexact tensor method efficiency was compared with the Newton and inexact Newton method, respectively, for several different circuits using diodos, FETs and HBTs, and operating under different multi-tone regimes. / Doutorado / Engenharia de Telecomunicações / Doutor em Engenharia Elétrica

Power electronics, which fully covers the generation, conversion, transmission and usage of electrical energy, is a key technology for human welfare. With the development of technologies, the requirements on the reliability of power electronic systems are keep increasing. Long term operation under harsh environments is often accompanied by higher switching frequency and higher power density. To allow a reliable and sustainable performance of the power electronic systems, precise lifetime estimation of the power semiconductor devices is of significant importance. This work covers some aspects in the lifetime prediction of power semiconductor devices, especially IGBT and diode, in power module and transfer-molded discrete package. Difference in device temperature determination was illustrated using analytical calculation, simulation and measurement. In addition, temperature calculation in the frequency domain was demonstrated which gives benefits in the application with several hundred devices. Furthermore, different control strategies in the power cycling test were compared. The linear cumulative damage theory was validated by using the power cycling test. For the high power IGBT module used in the MMC HVDC application, power cycling lifetime with 50 Hz heating processes was investigated. For the transfer-molded discrete package, the first lifetime model with comparable scope like the lifetime model of power modules was proposed. / Leistungselektronik, welche direkt relevant für die Erzeugung, Umwandlung, Übertragung und Nutzung elektrischer Energie ist, ist eine Schlüsseltechnologie für das Wohl der Menschen. Mit der Entwicklung von Technologien steigen die Anforderungen an die Zuverlässigkeit leistungselektronischer Systeme. Der Langzeitbetrieb unter rauen Umgebungsbedingungen geht häufig mit einer höheren Schaltfrequenz und einer höheren Leistungsdichte einher. Um eine zuverlässige und nachhaltige Operation der leistungselektronischen Systeme zu ermöglichen, ist die genaue Lebensdauerabschätzung der Halbleiter-Leistungsbauelemente von großer Bedeutung. Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit einigen Aspekten der Lebensdauerabschätzung von den Halbleiter-Leistungsbauelementen. Unterschied in der Temperaturabstimmung der Halbleiter-Leistungsbauelemente wird anhand von Berechnung, Simulation und Messung veranschaulicht. Darüber hinaus bietet die Temperaturberechnung im Frequenzbereich Vorteile bei der Anwendung mit mehreren hundert Bauelementen. Darüber hinaus wurden verschiedene Regelstrategien im Lastwechseltest verglichen. Die lineare kumulative Alterungstheorie wurde unter Verwendung des Lastwechseltests validiert. Für das in der MMC-HGÜ-Anwendung verwendete Hochleistungs-IGBT-Modul wurden Alterungsprozesse bei 50 Hz Erwärmung untersucht. Für das Diskrete-Gehäuse wird das erste Lebensdauermodell vorgestellt, welches ein vergleichbares Anwendungsbereich wie das Lebensdauermodell von Leistungsmodulen hat.