Polypyrrole nanocylinders were fabricated by chemically synthesizing polypyrrole within the pores of nanoporous polycarbonate particle track-etched membranes and alumina membranes. The morphology of the nanostructures was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The polycarbonate membrane-templated nanocylinders were cigar-shaped, with the diameter at the center being up to 2.5 times the diameter at the ends. The nanostructures produced in alumina membranes were linear aggregates of blobs. The electrical conductivity of the nanocylinders was measured by leaving the nanocylinders embedded in the insulating template membrane and measuring the trans-membrane resistance. The smallest diameter polycarbonate membrane-templated nanocylinders exhibited a slightly lower conductivity relative to the larger diameter nanocylinders. The temperature dependence of the resistance with and without the application of a magnetic field was in accordance with Mott variable range hopping at temperatures above 5 ± 1 K and Efros-Shklovskii variable range hopping at temperatures below 5 ± 1 K. Based on the measurements in the Mott regime, the localization length, the density of states at the Fermi energy, and the temperature dependence of the average hopping distance were calculated. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

La compression directe est l’une des méthodes de fabrication de comprimés les plus communes et économiques de l’industrie pharmaceutique. Cependant, l’utilisation de ce procédé requiert souvent un changement de formulation. Puisque le séné, un extrait naturel de plante, n’est pas un matériel compressible, des méthodologies de conception d’expériences et de qualité par conception ont été utilisées pour développer une formulation convenable pour la compression directe des comprimés de séné. Le nouveau produit formulé a démontré plusieurs bénéfices reliés au temps de fabrication, aux besoins en main d’œuvre et aux besoins en machineries. De plus, la stabilité du produit, emballé dans des bouteilles de polyéthylène exposées à des conditions extrêmes pendant six mois, a démontré des résultats conformes aux limites spécifiées à l’interne. Cependant, il reste quelques défis à relever concernant la détermination de la vitesse de fabrication à grande échelle et de la stabilité du produit à long terme. Néanmoins, l’implémentation du procédé de compression directe démontre suffisamment de bénéfices à long terme pour remplacer le procédé courant de granulation humide. / Direct compression is becoming one of the most common and economical method of tablets manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry. However, the feasibility of this process often results in formulation change. Since senna powder, a natural plant extract, is not a compressible material, methodologies such as Design of Experiments (DOE) and Quality by Design (QbD) were used in this project to develop a suitable formulation for the direct compression process of senna tablets. The newly formulated product demonstrated benefits with regards to process time, manpower and machinery requirements. Furthermore, product stability in high density polyethylene bottles exposed to accelerated conditions over a six months period, demonstrated results that conforms to the limits specified in-house. Nevertheless, a few challenges remain in terms of establishing the process speed in large scale manufacturing and establishing the product shelf life upon completion of long term stability studies. In spite of these challenges, implementing the direct compression process to manufacture senna tablets instead of continuing with the wet granulation process demonstrated sufficient benefits to adopt this new process for the long run.

L’objectif de ces travaux de thèse est de contribuer à la compréhension d’un procédé de mise en forme composite appelé EPITHER. Il s’agit d’un procédé visant la réalisation de pièces composites massives à utilisations structurelles pour les marchés de l’automobile et de l’aéronautique. Il a été breveté en 2011 et en 2015/2016.Les trois étapes de réalisation des pièces EPITHER sont les suivantes : enroulement d’une préforme en optimisant l’anisotropie du composite en fonction des chemins d’efforts de la pièce réelle, mise en forme de la préforme par thermoformage, apport de propriétés morphologiques supplémentairesLes travaux de thèse s’orientent autour de trois axes majeurs : la mise en place d’une phase expérimentale, la compréhension des étapes de consolidation des pièces et l’influence des paramètres de mise en forme. / The objective of this work is to contribute to the comprehension of a new composite forming process which name is EPITHER. This forming process was created to produce massive composites parts used for structural applications in automotive and aeronautics industries. Two patents have been deposed in 2011 and in 2015/2016.There are three steps in the forming process EPITHER: winding a preform in order to maximize and optimize the anisotropy of the composite considering the mechanical specifications of the final part, forming the preform by a thermoforming step, add morphological properties in a last step.The Phd deals with three major research axis: setting up an experimental study, the comprehension of the consolidation steps and a study of the consolidation parameters.

Les matériaux semi-conducteurs à base de nitrures disposant de largeur de bande interdite allant de 0,7 à 6 eV, connaissent un intérêt sans cesse croissant pour le développement de dispositifs optoélectroniques du futur. Le but de ces travaux est d’étudier, de concevoir et de développer une photodiode de type PIN à base de matériaux InxGa1-xN et GaN déposés par MOCVD et MBE. Elle est étudiée en considérant différentes configurations de la couche absorbante InGaN, à savoir une couche simple épaisse (SL) ou des puits quantiques (MQW). Toutefois en jouant sur la composition x en indium de la couche InGaN, cela permet la mise au point de différente longueur d'onde d'absorption dans la structure PIN. Des analyses structurales, microstructurales et optiques ont été réalisées par RX, TEM, PL, AFM et MEB pour des photodiodes PIN avec une couche absorbante InGaN de composition en indium variant de 10 à 50%. Nous avons pu vérifier que la qualité du matériau se dégradait lorsque l'on augmentait la teneur en indium et que cela impactait sur les performances de composants. La conception de la structure PIN a été définie pour différentes géométries de photodiode (de 25 à 104 μm²). Des caractérisations statiques et dynamiques de dispositifs fabriquées ont été réalisées afin d'obtenir la réponse de la photodiode. Pour les photodiodes à grande échelle, la valeur de photocourant a atteint un maximum de 3,2 mA démontrant une fréquence de coupure de 940 MHz. La μ-photodiode a révélé 395 μA de photocourant et une fréquence de coupure 1,45 GHz. / III-Nitrides semi-conductor materials with flexible bandgap has revealed a major interest for the future development of optoelectronic devices. The aim of this work is to study, design and develop a PIN photodiode based on InxGa1-xN and GaN materials deposited by MOCVD and MBE. Different configurations are considered for the InGaN absorbent layer: a single layer (SL) and multiple quantum wells (MQW). In order to observe the shift in the absorption wavelength, the composition of the InGaN layer ranges from10 to 50%. Structural, microstructural and optical analysis are performed using XRD, TEM, PL, AFM and SEM. We have verified that the material quality promptly degrades when increasing the indium content which impacts on the device performances. The design of the PIN structure is governed by the limitation of the active surface (from 25 to 104 μm²) in order to limit the global capacitance. Different prototypes are fabricated in clean room before characterization. Static and dynamic characterizations have been realized to qualify the photodiode response. We have investigated the influence of the indium content on the electrical performance. For the large-scale photodiodes, photocurrent value has reached a maximum of 3.2 mA with laser power of 75 mW demonstrating cut-off frequency of 940 MHz. μ-photodiode has revealed 395 μA of maximal photocurrent with cut-off frequency of 1.45 GHz.

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In this work fabrication and studies of transistor structures based on an atomic sheet of graphite, graphene, are described. Since graphene technology is in its early stages, the development and optimisation of the fabrication process are very important. In this work the impact of various fabrication conditions on the quality of graphene devices is investigated, in particular the effects on the carrier mobility of the details of the mechanical exfoliation procedure, such as environmental conditions and humidity, source of graphite and wafer cleaning procedure. In addition, a comparison is made between the conventional e-beam lithorgaphy and lithography-free fabrication of samples. It was also demonstrated that water and other environmental species play an important role in graphene-to-substrate adhesion and can also contribute to the carrier scattering in graphene. A technique for creating suspended metal gates was developed for the fabrication of graphene p-n-p structures, and charge transport has been studied in such top-gated graphene devices. Depending on the relation between the carrier mean free path and the length of the top-gate we have realized three distinct transport regimes through the p-n-p structure: a) diffusive across the structure; b) ballistic in the regions of p-n junctions but diffusive in the n-region; c) ballistic across the whole p-n-p structure. The second regime has revealed the chiral nature of carriers in graphene. This was demonstrated by comparing the experimental resistance of a single p-n junction with results of electrostatic modeling in the diffusive model. In the third regime we have observed oscillations of the device resistance as a function of carrier concentration in the n-region, which are also dependent on magnetic field. These oscillations have been demonstrated to be a direct consequence of a Fabri-Perot-like interference effect in the graphene p-n-p structures.

Graphene is a new two-dimensional (2D) material with unique electrical transport, optical and mechanical properties. However, monolayer graphene (MLG) is a gapless semiconductor, which limits its relevance for transistor applications where a large on/off ratio of the current is required. In this work the investigation of transport properties of few-layer graphene (FLG) is presented. These 2D electronic systems offer a novel solution to the problem concerned the absence of an energy gap in single layer graphene, since they exhibit an electric field and stacking-dependent band gap in the energy dispersion. Thus far, a clear observation of a band-gap in multilayer graphene (e.g. Bernal-stacked bilayers) in transport measurements was hindered by the presence of disorder. Here we develop a reliable and effective method of fabrication of high-quality suspended double-gated graphene devices, which are of crucial importance for probing the low energy dispersion of few-layer graphene. The current annealing technique, described in details, improves transport characteristics like carrier mobility, which is typically higher than ∼ 104 cm2/Vs for our multilayer devices. Electrical transport experiments on suspended dual-gated ABC-stacked trilayer are performed. We report the direct evidence of the opening of a tunable band-gap with an external perpendicular electric field, ranging from 0 meV up to 5.2 meV for an electric field of 117 mV/nm. Thermally activated transport is observed in these samples over the temperature range 0.5 - 80 K. The values of energy gap extracted from both temperature dependence of minimum conductivity measurements and non-linear I –V characteristics correlate well. Our experimental results are in a good agreement with theoretical approximation, based on self-consistent tight-binding calculations. The high quality of our ABC trilayer samples is also demonstrated by a particularly high on/off ratio of the current (250 at applied electrical displacement as low as 80 mV/nm), which makes these devices promising for future semiconductor electronics. FLG samples with reduced disorder allow us to observe quantum Hall effect (QHE) at magnetic field as low as 500 mT. We present the first study of electric field- induced new QH states in ABC trilayer graphene (TLG). The transitions between spin-polarized and valley polarized phases of the sample at the charge neutrality point are investigated. Resolved novel broken symmetry states along with observed Lifshitz transition in rhombohedral TLG display exciting phenomena attributed to rich physics in these interactive electronic systems.

Dans la majeure partie des travaux effectués dans le domaine de la surveillance des systèmes, les outils servant à la détection et à la localisation des défauts sont synthétisés à partir d'une représentation en boucle ouverte du système. Or, la réalité des applications industrielles fait que les systèmes sont majoritairement insérés dans une boucle de régulation ou d'asservissement. Dans ce contexte, la tâche de diagnostic s'avère particulièrement délicate pour différentes raisons. D'une part, le contrôleur peut atténuer l'effet des défauts ce qui rend difficile leur détection. D'autre part, les entrées du système étant corrélées avec les sorties à cause du bouclage cela engendre une difficulté pour la localisation. Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse se scindent en deux parties: la première porte sur l'analyse systématique de la sensibilité des différents signaux de la boucle de régulation par rapport aux défauts (paramétriques et non paramétriques). L'objectif est de sélectionner ceux qui contiennent le plus d'information sur les défauts pour être exploités par la procédure du diagnostic. La deuxième propose une méthode de détection et de localisation de défauts des systèmes linéaires en boucle fermée soumis à des défauts additifs. Le principe de la méthode consiste à découpler les défauts des sorties afin que chaque défaut affecte une seule sortie ce qui facilite leur localisation / In most of the works concerning system supervision, the methods developed for fault detection and isolation are synthesized from an open-loop representation of the system. But considering real industrial applications, it appears that , most of the times, the system is inserted in a control loop with output feedback. In this context, the task of diagnosis is tedious for several reasons. Firstly, the controller is designed in order to attenuate the effect of the faults, consequently their detection becomes challenging. Secondly, due to the output feedback, the system inputs are correlated with the system outputs, which can complicate the fault isolation. The works presented in the present thesis can be divided into two parts. The first one focuses on the systematic analysis of the sensitivity of the several signals of the control loop with respect to the faults (both additive and parametric faults have been considered). The sensitivity analysis is carried out to select the signal encompassing most information on fault in order to be used for fault diagnosis. In the second one, a fault detection and isolation method based on input-output decoupling is presented for closed-loop linear systems with additive faults. The point is to compute an output feedback such that each fault affects only one output, and thus ease the diagnosis

Conjugated polymers are organic polymers that can conduct electricity. They undergo a volume change upon redox reaction and can be used as an active material in some micro- actuator system. Micro-actuators are useful in biomedical and electronic application. We have fabricated a patterned Polypyrrole (PPy) trilayer microactuator device that has individually addressable microactuators (a micro walker) which can operate in air. Furthermore, the PPy trilayer microactuator device is fabricated using standard microfabrication method called photolithography to pattern PPy on PVDF membrane material. An etching process was used to achieve the patterning process. We presented the result of characterization of speed as a function of voltage and thickness of PPy film. Secondly, distance as a function of applied voltage and thirdly, the work density as a function of applied voltage. The procedures for fabrication of PPy microactuator device, using clean room facility is detailed in this thesis.