This thesis describes a unique approach of turning on and off transistor cores to reconfigure low-noise amplifiers. A small footprint single-pole, single-throw switch is optimized for low insertion loss and high isolation. A narrowband (non-switchable) LNA is developed as a basis of comparison for reconfigurable designs. The optimized switch is incorporated into different switchable transistor core architectures. These architectures are investigated to determine their ability to reconfigure amplifier performance. One switchable transistor core topology is integrated into a cascode LNA design. An in depth stability analysis employing the S-probe technique is used to help improve the reliability of the cascode design. In addition, a single-pole, double-throw transmit/receive switch, as well as a deserializer are developed to help support the LNA block in a reconfigurable phased-array radar system. This type of flexible radar design is very beneficial in challenging electromagnetic environments.

In radar target tracking problems, it may be required to use adaptive update rate in order to maintain the tracking accuracy while allowing the radar to use its resources economically at the same time. This is generally the case if the target trajectory has maneuvering segments and in such a case the use of adaptive update time interval algorithms for estimation of the target state may enhance the tracking accuracy. Conventionally, fixed track update time interval is used in radar target tracking due to the traditional nature of mechanically steerable radars. In this thesis, as an application to phased array radar, the adaptive update rate algorithm approach developed in literature for Alpha-Beta filter is extended to Kalman filter. A survey over relevant adaptive update rate algorithms used previously in literature on radar target tracking is presented including aspects related to the flexibility of these algorithms for the tracking filter. The investigation of the adaptive update rate algorithms is carried out for the Kalman filter for the single target tracking problem where the target has a 90&deg / maneuvering segment in its trajectory. In this trajectory, the starting and final time instants of the single maneuver are specified clearly, which is important in the assessment of the algorithm performances. The effects of incorporating the variable update time interval into target tracking problem are presented and compared for several different test cases.

Antenna is an indispensable part of a radar or free space communication system. Antenna requires different stringent specifications for different applications. Designed and fabricated for an intended application, antenna or antenna array has to be evaluated for its far-field characteristics in real free space environment which requires setting up of far-field test site. Maintenance of the site to keep the stray reflections levels low, the cost of the real estate are some of the disadvantages. Nearfield measurements are compact and can be used to test the antennas by exploiting the relationship between near-field and far-field. It is shown that the far-field patterns of an antenna can be sufficiently accurately predicted provided the near-field measurements are accurate. Due to limitation in the near-field measurement systems, errors creep in corrupting the nearfield-measured data thus making error in prediction of the far field. All these errors ultimately corrupt the phase and amplitude data. In this thesis, one such near-field measurement facility, the Planar Near Field Measurement facility is discussed. The limitations of the facility and the errors that occur due to their limitations are discussed. Various errors that occur in measurements ultimately corrupt the near-field phase and amplitude. Investigations carried out aim at a detailed study of these phase and amplitude errors and their effect on the far-field patterns of the antenna. Depending on the source of error, the errors are classified as spike, pulse and random errors. The location of occurrence of these types of errors in the measurement plane, their effects on the far-field of the antenna is studied both for phase and amplitude errors. The studies conducted for various phase and amplitude errors show that the near-field phase and amplitude data are more tolerant to random errors as the far-field patterns do not get affected even for low sidelobe cases. The spike errors, though occur as a wedge at a single point in the measurement plane, have more pronounced effect on the far-field patterns. Lower the taper value of the antenna, more pronounced is the error. It is also noticed that the far-field pattern gets affected only in the plane where the error has occurred and has no effect in the orthogonal plane. Pulse type of errors which occur even for a short length in the measurement affect both the principle plane far-field patterns. This study can be used extensively as a tool to determine to the level to which various error such as mechanical, RF etc need to be controlled to make useful and correct pattern predictions on a particular facility. Thereby, the study can be used as a tool to economise the budget of the facility wherein the parameters required for building the facility need not be over specified beyond the requirement. In general, though this is a limited study, it is certainly a trendsetter in this direction.

The threaded fasteners are one of the most versatile methods for assembly of structural components. For example, in bridges large bolts are used to fix base columns and small bolts are used to support access ladders. Naturally not all bolts are critical for the operation of the structure. Fasteners loaded with small forces and present in large quantities do not receive the same treatment as the critical bolts. Typical maintenance operations such tension measurements, internal stress checking or monitoring of crack development are not practical due to cost and time constrains. Although failure of a single non-critical fastener is not a significant threat to the structure's stability, massive malfunction may cause structural problem such as insufficient stiffness or excessive vibrations. The health of bolted joints is defined by a single parameter: the clamping force (CF). The CF is the force that holds the elements of the joint together. If the CF is too low, separation and bolt fatigue may occur. On the other hand, excessive CF may produce damages in the structural members such as excessive distortion or breakage. The CF is generated by the superposition of the individual tension of the bolts. The bolt tension, also referred as bolt preload, is the actual force that is stretching the bolt body. Maintaining the appropriate tension in bolts ensures a proper CF and hence a good health of the joint. In this thesis, a novel methodology for estimating the tension in bolts using surface acoustic waves (SAWs) is investigated. The tension is estimated by using the reflection of SAWs created by the bolt head interference. Increments in the bolt tension raise the points of interaction between the waves and the bolt head (real area of contact), and hence the position of the reflective boundaries. The variations are estimated using the "conventional linear synthetic array" imaging technique. A singular transducer is actuated from predefined positions to produce an array of signals that are subsequently arranged and added to construct an acoustic image. Three sets of experiment are presented in this research for validating the proposed concept: tension estimation of a ¼ inch stainless steel bolt, a ½ inch stainless steel bolt and ¼ inch grade 8 bolt. Acoustic images of the surface of the clamped plate illustrate a clear trend in the position of the reflective boundary when torque is changed. In all cases, the torque increments increase the real area of contact and therefore the position of the reflective boundary. As expected, the real area of contact grew from the bolt head center to the perimeter, which causes an effect of apparent movement of the boundary. This research proves the potential of the ultrasonic imaging methodology to measure applied tension. The result showed that the system can be used to successfully inspect tension in bolts of ½ and ¼ inches. The methodology investigated in this thesis is the first steps towards the development of bolt tension sensor based on surface acoustic waves.

An analysis and simulation tool is developed for optimizing system parameters of the monopulse target tracking radar and observing effects of the system parameters on the performance of the system over different scenarios. A monopulse tracking radar is modeled for measuring the performance of the radar with given parameters, during the thesis studies. The radar model simulates the operation of a Class IA type monopulse automatic tracking radar, which uses a planar phased array. The interacting multiple model (IMM) estimator with the Probabilistic Data Association (PDA) technique is used as the tracking filter. In addition to modeling of the tracking radar model, an optimization tool is developed to optimize system parameters of this tracking radar model. The optimization tool implements a Genetic Algorithm (GA) belonging to a GA Toolbox distributed by Department of Automatic Control and System Engineering at University of Sheffield. The thesis presents optimization results over some given optimization scenarios and concludes on effect of tracking filter parameters, beamwidth and dwell interval for the confirmed track.

The photoconductive method is one of the oldest methods for the generation of THz room temperature operated THz electromagnetic waves. The THz photoconductive source has operated at a lower power level in the order of hundreds of nW. In addition, the energy conversion of optical to THz efficiency has remained extremely low. One of the most efficient THz photoconductive sources is a trap-enhanced field (TEF) effect source. The field is measured to contain more than 90% of the total DC bias within the first 5 µm of an 80 µm gap between the electrodes reaching kV/cm with only a modest bias. The overall THz power, however, has remained low, due to its rapid saturation. To date, there has been a limited understanding of the TEF effect. In this thesis, a more detailed experimental investigation of TEF effect current transport and field distribution based on annealing is presented to explain some of the underlining physics of TEF effect. A spatially extended line excitation is introduced to effectively reduce the screening effect while still exploiting the TEF region to maintain high efficiency and reach the µW regime. The record efficiency reached by this method is demonstrated. An experimental demonstration with a numerical analysis of the line excitation is presented. The spectral analysis of both a point and a line excitation demonstrate that the line excitation spectrum is not only comparable to that of the point excitation, but also extends the range of useful lower frequency content. To further improve the THz efficiency, the line excitation THz array is investigated.

Thesis (M.Eng.(Microelectronic Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Includes summaries in Afrikaans and English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [74]-78). Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Cette thèse est une contribution à l’amélioration des observations pour les radiotélescopes à réseaux phasés en présence d’interférences. L’originalité de cette thèse repose sur l’utilisation de la séparation spatiale entre les sources cosmiques et les brouilleurs issus des télécommunications en se basant sur la cyclostationnarité de ces derniers. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet européen SKADS pour l’amélioration des techniques de suppression d’interférences en radioastronomie pour les futurs instruments d’observations.Nous avons proposé trois techniques de traitement d’interférences : la détection,l’estimation et la soustraction, et le filtrage spatial. Les performances des techniques proposées ont été évaluées à travers des simulations sur des données synthétiqueset/ou réelles, et comparées aux techniques existantes. / This thesis is a contribution to observation improvements for phased array radiotelescopes, in the presence of radio frequency interferers (RFIs). The originality ofthe study is the use of the cyclostationarity property, in order to improve the spatial separation between cosmic sources and telecommunication signals. This thesis is part of the European SKADS project, which aims to improve RFI mitigation techniques for future instruments in radio astronomy.We have proposed three spatial processing techniques: detection, estimation and subtraction and spatial filtering. The performance of the techniques presented have been evaluated through simulations on synthetic and/or real data, and compared to existing approaches.

Le travail présenté concerne l'étude des instabilités thermo-acoustiques apparaissant dans une chambre de combustion aéronautique. Le montage expérimental permet de faire varier continument les fréquences de résonances et de passer pour une même condition d'écoulement, d'un régime de combustion stable à un régime instable. La caractérisation complète d'un cas instable comprend une mesure des conditions acoustiques aux limites du banc, une analyse du comportement des phases liquide et évaporée, de celui du dégagement de chaleur instationnaire et une mesure de la fonction de transfert de la flamme. Ces travaux ont mis en évidence trois phénomènes jouant sur l’injection cyclique de carburant liquide. Les temps caractéristiques des différents phénomènes intervenant dans le couplage thermo-acoustique et une distribution spatiale de l'indice de Rayleigh sont présentés. / The purpose of this experimental study was to further our understanding of the fuel spray behavior during combustion instability phenomena in combustion chambers. An aeronautical injection system with dual kerosene lines was mounted on the LOTAR setup, which was equipped with an adjustable exhaust length. Stability maps were generated by varying the global equivalent ratio and the fuel split parameter, for two Inner Exhaust Lengths (IEL). A non-unique multiphase flow condition was found to produce stable and unstable combustion for different IELs. Each configuration was fully characterized. Acoustic boundary conditions were measured using the 2-microphone technique. Different optical techniques were used toanalyze the unsteady behavior of the liquid phase, fuel vapor, and heat release. Moreover, two techniques were exploited to study the Flame Transfer Function using velocity measurement supstream and downstream of the injection device. Altogether, these results highlighted three atomization phenomena occurring during the cycles of thermo-acoustic instabilities. The phase-averaged analysis applied on the different measurements permitted to determine thetime scales associated with each process appearing in the thermo acoustic coupling. This cyclic injection of liquid fuel into the chamber was followed by a vapor phase increase corresponding to a wave of equivalent ratio. The delay between the two phenomena was of10°. In addition, OH* emissions showed a cyclic behavior following these waves. The delay between the wave of equivalent ratio and the unsteady heat release was approximately of 25°.Finally, spatial distribution of the Rayleigh index revealed that the inner recirculation zone contributed to sustain the combustion instability.

Ce travail de thèse entre dans le cadre de projets nationaux et internationaux de radioastronomie d'une manière générale et en particulier dans celui de SKA (Square Kilometre Array). La conception de circuits intégrés d’applications spécifiques devient de plus en plus importante dans ce domaine. La première étape de ce travail consiste à une étude bibliographique sur les inductances actives intégrées et leurs principales applications dédiées à la radioastronomie. Cette étude a permis de faire un état de l'art. Cet état de l'art a fait ressortir que l'intégration de certaines fonctions s'avère particulièrement difficile voire impossible dès lors que l'utilisation d'une inductance est nécessaire. Ceci est essentiellement dû à la taille importante des inductances. Parmi ces fonctions, nous avons le filtrage, certains types de transceivers, le temps de retard, etc. Or ces fonctions sont très importantes dans une architecture de radiofréquence propre aux réseaux d'antennes phasées. Ce travail de thèse est donc consacré à l'étude et la conception de ces différentes fonctions à l'aide des inductances actives basées sur des topologies à gyrateurs en technologie SiGeC 0,25 μm afin de palier aux problèmes d'intégration. Une des finalités de cette thèse est aussi de montrer que la consommation de ce procédé d'intégration n’est pas si excessive pour ces applications, par rapport à l’utilisation d’inductances localisées intégrées occupant une surface importante sur le substrat. Ce dernier point sera un résultat très important pour les projets où la très haute intégration à bas coût est nécessaire, point clé de réussite des réseaux phasés denses du projet international SKA. / This thesis work is part of national and international projects of radio-astronomy in general and in particular that of the SKA (Square Kilometre Array). The design of integrated circuits for specific applications is becoming increasingly important in this field. The first step in this work is a bibliography study on integrated active reactors and their main applications dedicated to radio astronomy. This study allowed making a state of the art. This state of the art has highlighted that the integration of some functions is made especially difficult by the need to use an inductor. This is mainly due to the large size of passive inductors. These functions include the filtering function, some transceivers types, the time delay, etc. But, they are very important in radio-frequency architecture owing to phased array antennas. This thesis propose the study and design of these different functions using active inductors based on gyrators topologies in SiGeC 0.25 μm technology in order to overcome the integration problems. One of the aims of this thesis is to show that the consumption of this integration process is not so excessive for these applications, compared to the use of integrated located inductors occupying a large area on the substrate. This last point is a very important result for projects where high integration at low cost is necessary, key point of the success of dense phased array in the SKA international project.