Würzburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2004. / Erscheinungsjahr an der Haupttitelstelle: 2003.

Mannheim, Universiẗat, Diss., 2004.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon Graduate Center, 1985.

Thesis (M.M.) Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Jayne M. Standley, Florida State University, College of Music. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 5-15-2007). Document formatted into pages; contains 36 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon Graduate Center.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

No description available.

In the last 50 years microelectronics have advanced at an exponential rate, causing microelectronic devices to shrink, have very low operating voltages and increased complexities; all this has made circuits more sensitive to various kinds of failures. These trends allowed soft errors, which up until recently was just a concern for space application, to become a major source of system failures of electronic products. The aim of this research paper was to investigate different mitigation techniques that prevent these soft errors in a Video Graphics Array (VGA) controller which is commonly used in projecting images captured by cameras. This controller was implemented on a Flash Based Field Programmable Gate array (FPGA). A test set-up was designed and implemented at NRF iThemba LABS, which was used to conduct the experiments necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of different mitigation techniques. The set-up was capable of handling multiple Device Under Tests (DUT) and had the ability to change the angle of incidence of each DUT. The DUTs were radiated with a 66MeV proton beam while the monitoring equipment observed any errors that had occurred. The results obtained indicated that all the implemented mitigation techniques tested on the VGA system improved the system’s capability of mitigating Single Event Upsets (SEU). The most effective mitigation technique was the OR-AND Multiplexer Single Event Transient (SET) filter technique. It was thus shown that mitigation techniques are viable options to prevent SEU in a VGA controller. The permanent SEU testing set-up which was designed and manufactured and was used to conduct the experiments, proved to be a practical option for further microelectronics testing at iThemba LABS.

This thesis reports a study of the quantization of generally covariant and nonlinear field theories. It begins by reviewing some existing general theories in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, Chapter 2 deals with general classical theories while Chapter 3 examines various quantization schemes. The model field derived from the Lagrangian density ℓ = 1/4 ℇ[super]lkμλ (A [sub] k,t – A [sub] k,t)(A, {sub{ A[sub]μ,λ – A[sub]λ,μ). is proposed in Chapter 4 especially for the study of general covariance. It is demonstrated that for this field general covariance alone does not appear to bring in anything physically new, a discussion is given on the differences between general covariance and Lorentz covariance. In subsequent chapters a generally covariant and nonlinear model field, a 4-surface of stationary 4-volume embedded in a 5-dimensional Pseudo-Euclidean space, is investigated. Firstly a manifestly covariant quantization programme is carried out. The model field is then examined in a special coordinate frame for the study of its nonlinearity. Various treatments of the intrinsic nonlinearity are examined starting with conventional perturbation theory in Chapter 6. The usual divergence problem in quantum field theory appears, in particular in the self-energy calculation of a one-particle state. A new variational method is proposed in Chapter 8 which is able to lead to finite results for one-particle states. The thesis is concluded with a chapter discussing some general problems involved and a chapter containing suggestions for further work.