Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-118).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-159). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed May 28, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-93).

Thesis (M.S. in mechanical engineering)--Washington State University, August 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Sept. 16, 2009). "School of Engineering and Computer Science." Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-83).

A systematic study has been made of the electrical conduction processes through electrically etched porous silicon (PS) films sandwiched between two metal electrodes. The PS layers were formed by anodisation of p-type silicon wafers in a hydrofluoric (HF) acid solution. The effect of fabrication conditions on the structural and electrical properties of PS have been investigated. The thickness of PS layers was found to depend on the anodisation time, whereas porosity was regarded to be controlled by the current density and HF acid concentration. The dark current-voltage I(V) characteristics at fixed temperature and the variation of current as a function of temperature have been established. The characteristics for all devices, regardless the metal contact, show a rectifying behaviour with ideality factor close to unity. It was found that PS films fabricated from p-type silicon substrates behave like n-type silicon due to the depletion of electronic holes. The results suggest that a pn heterojunction between PS and p-Si is responsible for the rectifying behaviour. A value of 0.7 eV was obtained for the barrier height at the interface between PS and p-Si at room temperature. The barrier height was found to increase with rising temperature. Recombination conduction process was found to be dominant at low temperatures as the activation energy did not exceed 0.22 eV. At high temperatures, thermionic emission diffusion process was found to be responsible for the current transport in the PS structures. A band model was proposed for metal/PS/p-Si/metal structures in order to explain the observed characteristics. A.c. dark current measurements revealed that the a.c. conductivity varies as ws where w is the angular frequency and s' is an index which depends on temperature and having a value less than unity. A.c. activation energy was interpreted in terms of hopping conduction at low temperatures (less than 200 K) and diffusion transport of charge carriers through PS layers at higher temperatures. Measurements of capacitance as a function of frequency and temperature showed a decrease with increasing frequency and increase with increasing temperature. The photoconduction behaviour of PS was characterised by high dark resistivity, a clear photosensitivity for visible light, and a bias voltage dependence of the spectral response.

Ion Implantation of ruthenium ions into a silicon substrate followed by a high temperature anneal (known as Ion Beam Synthesis) has been used for the first time to fabricate three wafers, under the following conditions. 1. 5.67 X 1016 Ru+ cm-2, beam heated 2. 4.25 X 1016 Ru+ cm-2, heated to ~ 600°C 3. 1.27 X 1017 Ru+ cm-2, heated to ~ 600°C All wafers contained precipitates of the orthorhombic semiconducting silicide of ruthenium, Ru2Si3. No other phase was identified. The samples exhibited a complicated microstructure, with 16 different orientation variants identified, and a high degree of disorder (~ +11% strain). The first optical measurements ever carried out on this material are reported here. Absorption measurements in transmittance yielded a direct band gap, in the region of ~ 0.9eV, 0.87eV, and 0.92eV for wafers 1, 2, and 3 respectively. No discernible variation of band gap magnitude with measurement temperature was found. Upon sequential annealing, the direct band gap magnitude remained constant up to ~ 650°C after which it shifted to above that of silicon, possibly due to a change in microstructural disorder as the precipitates increase in size. This observation was confirmed by several single step anneals at various temperatures above 650°C. No photoluminescence was observed in any of the samples.

abstract: Total dose sensing systems (or radiation detection systems) have many applications, ranging from survey monitors used to supervise the generated radioactive waste at nuclear power plants to personal dosimeters which measure the radiation dose accumulated in individuals. This dissertation work will present two different types of novel devices developed at Arizona State University for total dose sensing applications. The first detector technology is a mechanically flexible metal-chalcogenide glass (ChG) based system which is fabricated on low cost substrates and are intended as disposable total dose sensors. Compared to existing commercial technologies, these thin film radiation sensors are simpler in form and function, and cheaper to produce and operate. The sensors measure dose through resistance change and are suitable for applications such as reactor dosimetry, radiation chemistry, and clinical dosimetry. They are ideal for wearable devices due to the lightweight construction, inherent robustness to resist breaking when mechanically stressed, and ability to attach to non-flat objects. Moreover, their performance can be easily controlled by tuning design variables and changing incorporated materials. The second detector technology is a wireless dosimeter intended for remote total dose sensing. They are based on a capacitively loaded folded patch antenna resonating in the range of 3 GHz to 8 GHz for which the load capacitance varies as a function of total dose. The dosimeter does not need power to operate thus enabling its use and implementation in the field without requiring a battery for its read-out. As a result, the dosimeter is suitable for applications such as unattended detection systems destined for covert monitoring of merchandise crossing borders, where nuclear material tracking is a concern. The sensitive element can be any device exhibiting a known variation of capacitance with total ionizing dose. The sensitivity of the dosimeter is related to the capacitance variation of the radiation sensitive device as well as the high frequency system used for reading. Both technologies come with the advantage that they are easy to manufacture with reasonably low cost and sensing can be readily read-out. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2017

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:25:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:02:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 05826.pdf: 6440180 bytes, checksum: 1c771858083be07c021d9ab59a4f8c36 (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:25:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:03:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 05828.pdf: 4375779 bytes, checksum: c190c087575f4e38cb7288acf4f8e657 (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Despite the increasing availability of personal fabrication hardware and services, the true potential of digital fabrication remains unrealized due to lack of computational techniques that can support 3D shape design by nonexperts. This work develops computational methods that address two key aspects of content creation:(1) Function-driven design synthesis, (2) Design assessment. For design synthesis, a generative shape modeling algorithm that facilitates automatic geometry synthesis and user-driven modification for nonexperts is introduced. A critical observation that arises from this study is that the most geometrical specifications are dictated by functional requirements. To support design by high-level functional prescriptions, a physics based shape optimization method for compliant coupling behavior design has been developed. In line with this idea, producing complex 3D surfaces from flat 2D sheets by exploiting the concept of buckling beams has also been explored. Effective design assessment, the second key aspect, becomes critical for problems in which computational solutions do not exist. For these problems, this work proposes crowdsourcing as a way to empower non-experts in esoteric design domains that traditionally require expertise and specialized knowledge.