A desirable goal in wireless communication systems is to achieve a high-rate data transmission through electrically small antennas. However, the overall transmission bandwidth is limited by the antenna size. As a well-known physical limitation, maximum achievable bandwidth of a small antenna is governed by the fundamental limit which defines a lower bound on the antenna quality factor. This limit is a function of electrical size of the antenna and therefore, as the antenna shrinks in size the bandwidth decreases as well. This dissertation presents a new technique to decouple the impedance bandwidth of a high-Q antenna from the information bandwidth in order to provide a wideband data-transmission. This technique controls the natural resonant frequencies of an electrically small antenna in a time-varying fashion such that ultra-fast frequency-shift keying modulation can be achieved regardless of the narrow bandwidth of the antenna. A major advantage of the proposed technique is that the high-Q property of a miniaturized antenna is a desirable design parameter rather than a limiting factor. Therefore, the antenna size can be reduced as much as required. It is shown that if the fundamental resonance of an antenna is shifted in time, the frequency of the near-zone fields which construct the reactive stored energy, changes momentarily and hence, the radiating fields track any instantaneous variation of the antenna fundamental resonance. This characteristic is utilized to employ a single-mode high-Q antenna in the transient state and modulate the fundamental resonant frequency according to the baseband data information. This approach leads to a new class of compact transmitters with a minimized architecture and high data-rate transmission capability. / Ph. D.

In this dissertation, we present a cost-effective, neural network-based technique for data sanity checking and small system parameter monitoring which utilizes the contextual information in which data is collected to avoid the need for multiple metering. Multiple metering is not always a feasible nor an optimal solution to the problem. In an environment where it is necessary to monitor a large number of different physical variables, the mere installation and maintenance of multiple metering equipment can prove to be very costly. Moreover, multiple measurements of the same quantity result in a phenomenon known as data explosion. Context-based sensoyvalidation is achieved through cross sensor redundancy, which is not to be confused with metering redundancy. Neural networks are used to model the relationships among the various parameters and to provide context-based estimates which help in identifying sensor (versus system) malfunction. Slow tracking of the relationships among the parameters as they change over time is made possible through on-line training of the neural networks on the most recent data. This helps to account for the dependency of the relationships among system parameters on the range of external variables such as ambient temperature. A prototypical system titled DASANEX is implemented to illustrate the validity of the technique. The system is used to monitor and filter real-time transformer and ambient temperature data. A proof-of-concept is established using field data from the city of Martinsville Electric Department. Results prove the superior ability of the technique to identify sensor malfunction and to provide real-time adequate replacement values during short downtimes of the sensors even when some sensor data are missing or contaminated. / Ph. D.

(EN) Title: The process of pilot standardization of the Czech version of the questionnaire SERVQUAL for the sports services indurty. Objectives: This paper focus is to initiate the standardization process of the Czech version of the SERVQUAL questionnaire for fitness and recreational sport and prepare the ground for its future use in practice. Methods: First was SERVQUAL questionnaire translated into Czech language and distributed to two fitness centers during six months period. Then using Generalizability theory and faktor analysis the reliability and internal structure of this instrument was examined. Results: Provides information about use of this instrument in assesing service quality of fitness centers in Czech republic . Proposes recommendations for further modification and use the questionnaire in the Czech environment. Key words: Service quality, Measurement of service quality, Generalizability theory, Factor analysis. This research was supported by the Grant agency of Charles University, project no. 267811 Measuring sport services quality in fitness industry

Actuellement, les objets communicants sans fils occupent une place prépondérante. Pour faciliter leur utilisation, ces objets sont de plus en plus petits et nécessitent de très petites antennes. Cette miniaturisation d’antennes implique forcément une détérioration de leurs performances. La conception d’antennes électriquement petites (AEP) nécessite une très bonne compréhension théorique des mécanismes électromagnétiques mis en jeu notamment quelles limites précises peut-on atteindre pour une AEP étant circonscrive dans un volume donné. Un des paramètres essentiels d’une AEP est son facteur de qualité intrinsèque qui est inversement proportionnel à sa bande passante en impédance. Ainsi, maximiser la bande passante en impédance d’une antenne consiste à minimiser son facteur de qualité. Face à ce problème, de nombreux travaux ont été développés pour déterminer les limites possibles pour des AEP. C’est dans ce cadre que s’inscrit le premier axe de recherche de la thèse : étudier le facteur de qualité d’AEP, afin de déterminer s’il existe des dimensions optimales permettant de s’approcher de ces limites. Le second axe de recherche a consisté à étudier des AEP fonctionnant à 2,45 GHz pour des implants biomédicaux. Celles-ci sont imprimées sur de nouveaux types de substrat pour avoir une meilleure résolution de trace métallique favorisant une réduction de l’encombrement, et une intégration facilitant ainsi les interconnexions avec les frontaux RF. Le challenge consiste à maximiser les performances de ces antennes. Plusieurs prototypes ont été réalisés pour valider les simulations. / Currently, wireless devices play an important role in everyday life. For ease-of-use, these devices are becoming smaller and require very small antennas. However, the size reduction of these antennas necessarily implies a degradation of their performance. Consequently, the design of electrically small antennas (ESA) requires a very good theoretical understanding of the electromagnetic phenomenon that takes place, especially in terms of accurate performance that can be expected for an ESA with given dimensions. An important parameter of an ESA is its intrinsic quality factor since it is inversely proportional to its impedance bandwidth. Indeed, maximizing the matching bandwidth of an antenna consists in minimizing its quality factor. Facing this problem, many researches have been developed to determine the possible limits of the quality factor of ESA. The first research axis of this thesis is to study the quality factor of ESA to determine whether optimal dimensions exist to approach the fundamental quality factor limits. The second part of the thesis studies miniature antennas for biomedical implants operating at 2.45 GHz. These antennas are printed on a specific microelectronic substrate to ensure a better resolution in terms of metallic traces in order to reduce the size and allow easier integration to facilitate interconnections with RF front-end. The challenge consists in maximizing the performance of these antennas. The presented results are supported by means of electromagnetic models and simulations on one hand. Also, several prototypes are fabricated to validate these simulations.

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.

A miniaturization technique that allows the size of microstrip square open loop resonators to be reduced by more than 80% is presented and studied. The technique is based on the loading of the resonator with a series surface mount capacitor. It is shown that this technique allows the design of microwave bandpass filters with a wider stopband when compared with conventional designs. It is also proved that the insertion loss of the miniaturized filter is not degraded, but in fact can be maintained or even enhanced by the miniaturization process; this is true whenever the quality factor of the lumped capacitor is higher than the quality factor of the microstrip resonator. Finally, the feasibility of using the effect of the capacitor loss in the miniaturized resonator quality factor as a method to measure the effective series resistance of surface mount capacitors is studied, and recommendations towards its implementation are presented.

Afin d'optimiser l'utilisation des micropoutres en tant que capteurs chimiques, de nouvelles couches sensibles à base de matériaux microporeux ont été testées pour la détection d'humidité, de toluène et d'éthanol. Des essais sans couches sensibles ont aussi été effectués et des modèles simples ont été mis au point afin de prédire la réponse des micropoutres lors d'un changement d'environnement. Ces études ont donc permis la mise en oeuvre des micropoutres selon deux principes de détections différents: l'un reposant sur la variation de masse du capteur à base de micropoutre lors de l'absorption de composé par une couche sensible; l'autre reposant sur la détection de changements de propriétés physiques du fluide environnant. / In order to optimize the use of microcantilever in the way of chemical sensing, microporous sensitive coatings have been tried to detect ethanol, toluene and humidity. The use of microcantilever without sensitive coating have been performed and simple models has been made and permit to predict the response of microcantilever in different environments. These studies rely on the use of microcantilever within two different detection mode: the detection of mass variation of the sensor because of the sorption of species in sensitive coating; and the detection of the change of physical properties of the fluid.

abstract: Inductors are fundamental components that do not scale well. Their physical limitations to scalability along with their inherent losses make them the main obstacle in achieving monolithic system-on-chip platform (SoCP). For past decades researchers focused on integrating magnetic materials into on-chip inductors in the quest of achieving high inductance density and quality factor (QF). The state of the art on-chip inductor is made of an enclosed magnetic thin-film around the current carrying wire for maximum flux amplification. Though the integration of magnetic materials results in enhanced inductor characteristics, this approach has its own challenges and limitations especially in power applications. The current-induced magnetic field (HDC) drives the magnetic film into its saturation state. At saturation, inductance and QF drop to that of air-core inductors, eliminating the benefits of integrating magnetic materials. Increasing the current carrying capability without substantially sacrificing benefits brought on by the magnetic material is an open challenge in power applications. Researchers continue to address this challenge along with the continuous improvement in inductance and QF for RF and power applications. In this work on-chip inductors incorporating magnetic Co-4%Zr-4%Ta -8%B thin films were fabricated and their characteristics were examined under the influence of an externally applied DC magnetic field. It is well established that spins in magnetic materials tend to align themselves in the same direction as the applied field. The resistance of the inductor resulting from the ferromagnetic film can be changed by manipulating the orientation of magnetization. A reduction in resistance should lead to decreases in losses and an enhancement in the QF. The effect of externally applied DC magnetic field along the easy and hard axes was thoroughly investigated. Depending on the strength and orientation of the externally applied field significant improvements in QF response were gained at the expense of a relative reduction in inductance. Characteristics of magnetic-based inductors degrade with current-induced stress. It was found that applying an externally low DC magnetic field across the on-chip inductor prevents the degradation in inductance and QF responses. Examining the effect of DC magnetic field on current carrying capability under low temperature is suggested. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2014

Orientador: Luiz Carlos Kretly / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T03:22:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_Eduardo_M.pdf: 14948633 bytes, checksum: 63579d1a8844e33a2c577a9aed963b41 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como escopo o projeto e implementação de indutores ativos em tecnologia CMOS para operação em sistemas de rádio freqüência. A grande área demandada por indutores passivos integrados, bem como a sua baixa indutância e baixo fator de qualidade associados, apresentam-se como um dos maiores limitantes no projeto de circuitos integrados aplicados às comunicações. Como alternativa, indutores ativos integrados têm sido propostos. O uso de topologias de circuitos que emulam o efeito do indutor passivo convencional torna-se atraente ao passo que o grau de compactação e seletividade podem ser obtidos. Quatro topologias distintas de indutores ativos integrados são abordadas, bem como uma aplicação prática. Resultados de simulação e de experimentos são apresentados / Abstract: This work aims the design and implementation of integrated active inductors in CMOS technology for applications in radio frequency systems. The large area occupied by passive inductors, as well its low quality factor and low inductance, have been detached as one of the major drawbacks in the design of integrated circuits applied to communication systems. Alternately, active inductors have been proposed. Circuits usage which emulates conventional spiral inductors becomes interesting since die area reduction and selectivity can be obtained. Four different topologies of integrated active inductors are discussed, as well a practical application. Simulation results and experimental results are presented. / Mestrado / Eletrônica, Microeletrônica e Optoeletrônica / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

A l'heure où la demande en quantité d'informations et le nombre d'utilisateurs explosent, toujours avec des limitations en allocation en fréquence et bande passante, les systèmes de télécommunication tendent à optimiser la gestion de leur capacité en s'orientant vers des systèmes reconfigurables. Dans le cas des filtres d'OMUX, apporter de l'accordabilité en conservant d'excellentes performances électriques, thermiques et mécaniques soulève de nombreuses difficultés.Nous avons dans un premier temps démontré la faisabilité sur un filtre à saut de canal à bande passante constante par le biais d'une cavité métallique chargée par un perturbateur en alumine en mouvement de rotation. Ensuite, nous avons proposé des solutions pour avoir un contrôle de la fréquence et de la bande passante en se basant sur la translation de matériaux diélectriques. Les facteurs de qualité mis en jeu sont de l'ordre de la dizaine de milliers. Enfin nous avons tiré profit de l'évolution des technologies d'impression plastique 3D pour valider différents concepts de filtres accordables. / At a time when the amount of information and the number of users go through the roof in telecommunication market, the telecommunication systems tend to improve the management of their capacity by moving toward reconfigurable RF devices. However frequency and bandwidth allocated are still restricted. Regarding tunable OMUX filters, the actuation systems generally degrade the overall performances of the device and raise questions in terms of mechanic and thermic.We first demonstrated the feasability of a two state filter with constant narrowband, using a dielectric material (alumina) in rotation inside a metallic housing. Then, we suggested solutions to control both frequency and bandwidth with the translation of a ceramics. We deal with quality factor in the range of ten of thousands for these applications. Eventually, we validated some principle for tunable filters thanks to the efficiency of 3D plastic printer.