Piezoelectric material based sensors are widely used in applications such as automobiles, aircraft, and industrial systems. In past decade, attention has been focused on synthesizing composites that can provide multifunctional properties, i.e., same material exhibits two or more properties. In this group of composites, magnetoelectric materials are particularly interesting as they provide the opportunity of coupling magnetic and electric field. Another class of composite materials that are being actively pursued is piezoresistive materials. Piezoresistivity refers to change in resistance with applied stress and these materials are promising for enhancing the sensitivity of current generation pressure sensors based on silicon. In this study, we focus on two composites systems: ferrite / Terfenol-D / nickel — lead zirconate titanate (magnetoelectric); and lanthanum strontium manganate (LSMO) — carbon nanotube (CNT) – silicon carbonitride (SiCN) (piezoresistive). Recently, Islam et al. have reported a magnetic field sensor based on a piezoelectric transformer with a ring- dot electrode pattern. In this thesis, this design was further investigated by synthesizing Terfenol-D / PZT laminate. The fabricated sensor design consists of a ring-dot piezoelectric transformer laminated to a magnetostrictive disc and its working principle is as follows: When a constant voltage is applied to the ring section of the piezoelectric layer at resonance, a stress is induced in the dot section. Then, if an external magnetic object is introduced in the vicinity of the dot section, the effective elastic stiffness is increased, altering the resonance frequency (fr). The variation of resonance frequency and magnitude of output voltage with applied magnetic field was characterized and analyzed to determine the sensitivity. The sensor showed a shift of ~1.36Hz/Oe over the frequency range of 137.4<fr<144.2 kHz with increasing magnetic bias from 1<Hdc<6kOe. Next, in order to overcome the need of magnetic DC bias in current magnetoelectric composites, a metal – ceramic core-shell composite structure was investigated. Metal-ceramic composite particles were synthesized at room temperature and their magnetic properties were investigated. The particles constitute a core-shell structure where the core is nickel-metal, while the shell is manganese zinc ferrite (MZF). Coprecipitation was used for synthesis of MZF nanoparticles comprising the shell, whereas nickel was synthesized by hydrazine assisted reduction of nickel ions in aqueous media. A core shell structure was then obtained by hetero-coagulation to form a shell of MZF around the nickel particles. Electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction confirmed nickel cores coated by MZF shells. Magnetization studies of MZF nano-particles revealed that they were not super-paramagnetic at room temperature, as expected for such particle sizes of 20nm in size. Sintered composites of metal-ceramic particles core-shell exhibited a magnetostriction of 5ppm. Lastly, the thesis investigates the piezoresistive properties of LSMO – CNT – SiCN composites that were synthesized by the conventional ceramic sintering technique. Recent investigations have shown that CNTs and SiCN have high piezoresistive coefficient. DSC/TGA results showed that pure CNTs decompose at temperatures of ~600°C, however, SiCN was found to sustain the sintering temperature of 1300°C. Thus, LSMO – SiCN composites were used for the final analysis. A fractional resistivity change of 4% was found for LSMO — 12.5 vol% SiCN composites which is much higher compared to that of unmodified LSMO. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Logging While Drilling (LWD) instruments used in oil and gas exploration are subjected to extreme environmental conditions that make reliable operation a major challenge. The sensors directly exposed to this environment experience accelerated aging and may suffer physical damage leading to failure. The cost of drilling and rig operations is very high magnifying any failures or issues with LWD tools. The goal of this report is to present a built-in self-test for an instrument sensor that provides a means to evaluate sensor functionality. The sensor is a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer. A brief review of the sensor physics will be given. I will review some methods for characterizing piezoelectric ceramic materials and transducers. The application of sensor test methods is applied in an ultrasound pulse-echo application. A brief review of the application circuit will be covered including state of the art in commercial ultrasound integrated circuit design. A prototype of the BIST method is evaluated using test transducers to verify the circuit provides indication of a transducers ability to function correctly. The prototype is achieved through the AD5933 demo board and MATLAB is used for data processing. / text

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Nanoparticles (nPs) demonstrate significant advantages over other sensor and marker technologies. The most useful optical nanosensor and label platform for biological samples would be non-toxic, hydrophilic, resistant to non-specific protein interactions and degradation over time or under harsh conditions, highly retentive of entrapped components, and easily functionalized for target specificity. The work described here is part of an investigation into the fabrication and application of polyacrylamide, polyacrylamide/silica hybrid, and polystyrene-core silica-shell nPs. Polyacrylamide (PA) nP nitric oxide (NO) sensors were made by co-entrapping 4, 5-diaminofluorescein (DAF-2) and Texas Red dextran in 60 nm PAnPs. Sensors were used to measure NO produced by a diazeniumdiolate NO donor in solution, and have a response time of 30 seconds or less. Entrapped DAF-2 was protected from non-specific interactions with bovine serum albumin (BSA). Sensor response to NO in FBS solutions was reduced compared to buffer, although improvement over free dyes was observed. The sensors were applied to J477A.1 macrophages as well as a HT1080 cell line (HTRiNOS) in preliminary studies for measuring intracellular NO production. Polyacrylamide/silica hybrid nPs were fabricated and nP architecture was evaluated by transmission electron microscopy. Isopycnic centrifugation of nP samples indicates that the hybrid nPs have a density between 1.70 and 1.76 g/cm³. Silica in the hybrid nPs was covalently labeled with Texas Red, suggesting that the hybrid nPs may be used as ratiometric or possibly multiplexed sensors. Hybrid nPs coated with 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) exhibit reduced adsorption of TRITC-BSA compared to uncoated hybrid nPs. Hybrid nP pH sensors were prepared and responded reproducibly and reversibly to changes in pH, nominally from pH 6.0 to 8.0. Core-shell nPs for scintillation proximity assay (SPA) were fabricated by entrapping the scintillants p-terphenyl and 4-bis(4-methyl-5-phenyl-2oxyzolyl)benzene in polystyrene, onto which silica shells were subsequently added. Core-shell nPs were found to have a scintillation response similar to that of shell-less polystyrene cores, indicating that the presence of the silica shells does not reduce scintillation efficiency. Preliminary studies using core-shell nPS for biotin-streptavidin binding SPA do not indicate an enhancement in scintillation efficiency, although this may be due to high nP:radiolabeled analyte ratios.

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