<p>This thesis addresses the investigation of doubly excited <i>2l´nl</i> states in helium atoms and double core excitations in solid lithium compounds.</p><p>Measurements on <i>He</i> are made in field free environments and under the influence of electric and magnetic fields, using synchrotron based inelastic photon scattering. Cross sections for scattering to singly excited final states are directly determined and compared to theoretical results and are found to be in excellent agreement. Radiative and spin-orbit effects are quantified and are shown to play an important role in the overall characterization of highly excited <i>He </i>states below the <i>N =2</i> threshold. A dramatic electric field dependence is also observed in the flourecence yield already for relatively weak fields. This signal increase, induced by electric as well as magnetic fields, is interpreted in terms of mixing with states of higher fluorescence branching ratios.</p><p>Double core excitations at the lithium site in solid lithium compounds are investigated using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS). The lithium halides <i>LiF, LiCl, LiBr</i> and <i>LiI </i>are studied as well as the molecular compounds <i>Li</i><i>2</i><i>O, Li</i><i>2</i><i>CO</i><i>3</i> and <i>LiBF</i><i>4</i>. States with one, as well as both, of the excited electrons localized at the site of the bare lithium nucleus are identified, and transitions which involve additional band excitations are observed. A strong influence of the chemical surrounding is found, and it is discussed in terms of the ionic character of the chemical bond.</p>

<p>In this Thesis studies of highly excited states in gas-phase atoms and molecules (He, Ne, N₂, O₂, N₂O and CO₂) using a variety of synchrotron-radiation based techniques are presented. The three techniques used most frequently are X-ray-emission-threshold-electron coincidence (XETECO), X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and they are all given a brief introduction. </p><p>The fluorescence yield (FY) from doubly excited states in helium near the N=2 threshold(s) has been investigated in weak static external magnetic and electric fields, but also in a field free environment. The FY spectra in weak static magnetic fields show the importance of including the diamagnetic interaction in the theoretical models. The presence of weak static electric fields shows that even weak fields (as low as 44 V/cm) has a great impact on the observed FY spectra. Resonant XES spectra from some of the first doubly excited states in helium has been recorded in a field free environment, and compared to theory.</p><p>The XETECO technique is presented and the first XETECO results from Ne, N₂, O₂, CO₂ and N₂O are shown, together with interpretations of possible threshold dynamics. I show that XETECO can be interpreted as threshold photoelectron spectra free from post collision interaction, and can hence be compared to above threshold XPS measurements. The observed below-threshold structures in the XETECO spectra are discussed and given a tentative explanation. The results from the analysis of the N₂O XETECO spectrum lead to further investigations using XPS. Results showing the vibrational parameters and vibrationally resolved cross-sections and asymmetry parameters for N₂O are presented together with theoretical predictions.</p>

Over the last four decades the integrated circuit industry has evolved in a tremendous pace. This success has been driven by the scaling of device sizes leading to higher and higher integration capability, which have enabled more functionality and higher performance. The impressive evolution of modern high-performance microprocessors have resulted in chips with over a billion transistors as well as multi-GHz clock frequencies. As the silicon integrated circuit industry moves further into the nanometer regime, scaling of device sizes is still predicted to continue at least into the near future. However, there are a number of challenges to overcome to be able to continue the increase of integration at the same pace. Three of the major challenges are increasing power dissipation due to clocking of synchronous circuit, increasing leakage currents causing growing static power dissipation and reduced circuit robustness, and finally increasing spread in circuit parameters due to physical limitations in the manufacturing process. This thesis presents a number of circuit techniques that aims to help in all three of the mentioned challenges.Power dissipation related to the clock generation and distribution is identified as the dominating contributor of the total active power dissipation for multi-GHz systems. As the complexity and size of synchronous systems continues to increase, clock power will also increase. This makes novel power reduction techniques absolutely crucial in future VLSI design. In this thesis an energy recovering clocking technique aimed at reducing the total chip clock power is presented. Based on theoretical analysis the technique is shown to enable considerable clock power savings. Moreover, the impact of the proposed technique on conventional flip-flop topologies is studied. Measurements on an experimental chip design proves the technique, and shows more than 56% lower clock power compared to conventional clock distribution techniques at clock frequencies up to 1.76 GHz.Static leakage power dissipation is a considerable contributor to the total power dissipation. This power is dissipated even for circuits that are idle and not contributing to the operation. Hence, with increasing number of transistors on each chip, circuit techniques which reduce the static leakage currents are necessary. In this thesis a technique is discussed which reduces the static leakage current in a microcode ROM resulting in 30% reduction of the leakage power with no area or performance penalty.Apart from increasing static power dissipation the increasing leakage currents also impact the robustness constraints of the circuits. This is important for regenerative circuits like flip-flops and latches where a changed state due to leakage will lead to loss of functionality. This is a serious issue especially for high-performance dynamic circuits, which are attractive in order to limit the clock load in the design. However, with the increasing leakage the robustness of dynamic circuits reduces dramatically. To improve the leakage robustness for sub-90 nm low clock load dynamic flip-flops, a novel keeper technique is proposed. The proposed keeper utilizes a scalable and simple leakage compensation technique, which is implemented on a reconfigurable flip-flop. At normal clock frequencies the flip-flop is configured in dynamic mode, and reduces the clock power by 25% due to the lower clock load. During any low-frequency operation, the flip-flop is configured as a static flip-flop retaining full functional robustness.As scaling continues further towards the fundamental atomistic limits, several challenges arise for continuing industrial device integration. Large inaccuracies in lithography process, impurities in manufacturing, and reduced control of dopant levels during implantation all cause increasing statistical spread of performance, power, and robustness of the devices. In order to compensate the impact of the increasingly large process variations on latches and flip-flops, a reconfigurable keeper technique is presented in this thesis. In contrast to the traditional design for worst-case process corners, a variable keeper circuit is utilized. The proposed reconfigurable keeper preserves the robustness of storage nodes across the process corners without degrading the overall chip performance.

This thesis reports design and implementation of a MEMS based resonant mass sensor for cell detection applications. The main objective of the thesis is the real-time detection of captured cells inside liquid medium and obtaining the detection results by electronic means, without the aid of any external optical instruments. A new resonant mass sensor architecture is presented that has various advantages over its conventional counterparts. The device oscillates in the lateral direction, eliminating squeeze film damping. A thin parylene layer coated on the device prevents liquids from entering the narrow gaps of the device, further improving the quality factor. The resonator is embedded on the floor of a microchannel. A gold film on the proof mass facilitates antibody based cell capture on the device. Theoretical background regarding resonator operation is investigated. Various resonator designs are presented, taking into account design trade-offs, application v considerations, and fabrication limitations. The design procedure is verified with MATLAB Simulink modeling results and finite element simulations. A new process flow has been developed for resonator fabrication, combining SOI, glass, and polymer micromachining. Modifications have been done on the flow for the solution of problems encountered during device fabrication. Each device has a foot print area of 1.5 x 0.5 cm2. The majority of this area is occupied by fluidic connections and reservoirs. Resonance characterization results in air and water have shown that there is significant quality factor enhancement with the parylene coating method. The quality factor decreases to only 170 in water from 610 in air, when the resonator is coated with a thin layer of parylene. Uniformity and linearity tests revealed that the devices have a standard deviation of only 1.9% for different analyte capture sites and an R2 of 0.997 for mass loads as high as 2.7 ng. Detection of Saccharomyces cerevisiae type yeast cells has been done using the resonators. Mass measurement of single yeast cell (13 pg) and yeast clusters (102 pg) have been performed. Antibody and thiol-gold chemistry based Candida Albicans type bacteria capture and detection has also been made in both air and water environments. The mass of several captured bacterial cells in air has been measured as 95pg. Two bacterial cells have been captured on one device inside water and their mass has been measured as 85 pg. It is worthy to note that all mass measurements are consistent with theoretical expectations.

In this Thesis studies of highly excited states in gas-phase atoms and molecules (He, Ne, N2, O2, N2O and CO2) using a variety of synchrotron-radiation based techniques are presented. The three techniques used most frequently are X-ray-emission-threshold-electron coincidence (XETECO), X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and they are all given a brief introduction. The fluorescence yield (FY) from doubly excited states in helium near the N=2 threshold(s) has been investigated in weak static external magnetic and electric fields, but also in a field free environment. The FY spectra in weak static magnetic fields show the importance of including the diamagnetic interaction in the theoretical models. The presence of weak static electric fields shows that even weak fields (as low as 44 V/cm) has a great impact on the observed FY spectra. Resonant XES spectra from some of the first doubly excited states in helium has been recorded in a field free environment, and compared to theory. The XETECO technique is presented and the first XETECO results from Ne, N2, O2, CO2 and N2O are shown, together with interpretations of possible threshold dynamics. I show that XETECO can be interpreted as threshold photoelectron spectra free from post collision interaction, and can hence be compared to above threshold XPS measurements. The observed below-threshold structures in the XETECO spectra are discussed and given a tentative explanation. The results from the analysis of the N2O XETECO spectrum lead to further investigations using XPS. Results showing the vibrational parameters and vibrationally resolved cross-sections and asymmetry parameters for N2O are presented together with theoretical predictions.

Terahertz waveguides are the focus of considerable research interest due to their potential for sensing, imaging and communications applications. Two of the most promising designs are the metal wire waveguide and the parallel-plate waveguide. The metal wire waveguide exhibits excellent low loss and low dispersion characteristics. However, the radiation is only weakly coupled to the wire and the beam extends a great distance from the waveguide, which can lead to high bending loss. In my research I show that this large beam extent also gives a high degree of flexibility in the geometry required to couple radiation into the waveguide or between waveguide sections. I also show that the traditional formalism of bending loss is incomplete, and that there is an optimum radius of curvature to reduce loss. The relationship between the beam extent and the radius of the wire presents the possibility of a tapered waveguide to confine the radiation as it propagates. I here present experimental data and simulations results to verify this subwavelength confinement at the tip of a tapered metal wire waveguide, which is of great interest for near-field imaging applications. The parallel-plate waveguide is another design frequently employed due to its low loss and low dispersion characteristics. Resonant structures may also be easily incorporated into the waveguide for sensing and filtering applications. One such structure is a single rectangular groove, which serves as a notch filter with a very narrow linewidth when the transverse-electric (TE) mode of the waveguide is excited, though its physical origin is poorly understood. In this work I present a detailed experimental and theoretical study of the rectangular resonant cavity in a TE-mode parallel-plate waveguide, particularly with respect to its potential as a microfluidic refractive index sensor. This study is extended to include the possibility of two grooves, in both coupled and non-coupled geometries, and their efficacy as multichannel or high-resolution single-channel microfluidic sensors.

Rhythmic movementssuch as swimming, flying, and walkingare ubiquitous in nature. Intrinsically active neural networks called central pattern generators (CPGs) provide the feedforward signals to actuate these movements, but the preferred movement frequency is often equivalent to the resonant frequency of the musculoskeletal system. Sensory feedback is essential to synchronize the neural and musculoskeletal systems to the mechanical resonant frequency, a phenomenon called resonance tuning. In this dissertation, we use a simple computational model of rhythmic movement to understand how the configuration of sensory feedback affects both the sensitivity of resonance tuning to parameter variation and the resiliency of resonance tuning to perturbation. Although previous studies have shown that resonance tuning is limited to frequencies that are above the intrinsic CPG frequency, we demonstrate that this limitation is only valid with negative feedback and with endogenously bursting CPG neurons. Specifically, we show that with positive feedback, resonance tuning occurs at frequencies that are below the intrinsic CPG frequency. Moreover, when the synaptic connections within the CPG are required for bursting activity, resonance tuning occurs both above and below the intrinsic CPG frequency with negative feedback and does not occur with positive feedback. Using Floquet analysis, we then demonstrate that perturbations decay more quickly when resonance tuning is realized with positive than with negative proportional feedback. Finally, we evaluate how the intrinsic CPG frequency, feedback gain, and mechanical damping affect the stability and range of resonance tuning with negative and positive feedback. Overall, these results indicate that the configuration of sensory feedback dramatically affects both the parameter space in which resonance tuning occurs and the stability of the resultant periodic motion.

The main topic of this thesis is the performance improvement of microresonators as mass-sensitive biochemical sensors in a liquid environment. Resonant microstructures fabricated on silicon substrates with CMOS-compatible micromachining techniques are mainly investigated. Two particular approaches have been chosen to improve the resolution of resonant chemical/biochemical sensors. The first approach is based on designing a microresonator with high Q-factor in air and in liquid, thus, improving its frequency resolution. The second approach is based on minimizing the frequency drift of microresonators by compensating for temperature-induced frequency variations. A disk-shape resonant microstructure vibrating in a rotational in-plane mode has been designed, fabricated and extensively characterized both in air and in water. The designed resonators have typical resonance frequencies between 300 and 1,000kHz and feature on-chip electrothermal excitation elements and a piezoresistive Wheatstone-bridge for vibration detection. By shearing the surrounding fluid instead of compressing it, damping is reduced and quality factors up to 5800 in air and 94 in water have been achieved. Short-term frequency stabilities obtained from Allan-variance measurements with 1-sec gate time are as low as 1.1 10-8 in air and 2.3 10-6 in water. The performance of the designed resonator as a biological sensor in liquid environment has been demonstrated experimentally using the specific binding of anti-beta-galactosidase antibody to beta-galactosidase enzyme covalently immobilized on the resonator surface. An analytical model of the disk resonator, represented by a simple harmonic oscillator, has been derived and compared with experimental results. The resonance frequency and the Q-factor of the disk resonator are determined from analytical expressions for the rotational spring constant, rotational moment of inertia, and energy loss by viscous damping. The developed analytical models show a good agreement with FEM simulation and experimental results and facilitate the geometrical optimization of the disk-type resonators. Finally, a new strategy to compensate for temperature-induced frequency drifts of resonant microstructures has been developed based on a controlled stiffness modulation by an electronic feedback loop. The developed method is experimentally verified by compensating for temperature-induced frequency fluctuations of a microresonator. In principle, the proposed method is applicable to all resonant microstructures featuring excitation and detection elements.

This thesis proposes a high efficiency driving circuit for multiple light emitting diode (LED) lamps with dimming feature. The driving circuit consists of essentially a high-frequency half-bridge series resonant inverter with multiple output transformers, on which primary windings are connected in series, while secondary sides are loaded by LED lamps rated at different powers with different turn ratios. By controlling the frequency of the inverter, the resonant current as well as the lamp current can be regulated simultaneously. On the other hand, the LED lamps can be dimmed individually by the associated dimming switches with integral cycle control. The tactful circuit ensures a high circuit efficiency owing to less conducting losses and zero-voltage switching (ZVS) operation of the active power switches of the inverter and zero current switching (ZCS) operation of the dimming switches. Two prototype circuits designed for 60 W three RGB LED lamps and 50 W five white light LED lamps have been built and tested to verify the analytical predictions. Experimental results demonstrate that the driving circuit can operate the LED lamps at a high efficiency with a wide dimming range. The lamp power can be dimmed to 10% with frequency control, while whole dimming range can be achieved with integral cycle control. The circuit efficiency with integral cycle control is relatively higher than that with frequency control. The measured efficiencies for the two designed circuit are 93% and 90%, respectively, under the rated powers.

A high-frequency half-bridge series resonant inverter with multiple output transformers is developed for driving multiple cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) with dimming feature. The primary sides of the transformers are connected in series with the resonant inverter to have an identical current, while the secondary sides are loaded by CCFLs with galvanic isolation to each other. To ensure a high circuit efficiency, the active power switches of the inverter are designed to be switched on at zero voltage. The resonant current of the inverter can be regulated by controlling the switching frequency of the inverter, so that all CCFLs can be dimmed simultaneously. On the other hand, the primary sides of the output transformers are associated with parallel switches to dim the CCFLs individually. These dimming switches are operated at a low frequency by integral cycle control with zero current switching (ZCS) to reduce the switching losses. The resonant circuit is tactfully designed to alleviate the variation of the resonant current caused by the switching of dimming switches. A laboratory circuit is built for driving 5 CCFLs. The intended circuit performances are confirmed by test results. The variation of the resonant current is less than 10% when the dimming switches are switching, and the measured efficiency for the circuit is 96.15% under the rated powers.