Soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) are neutron stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields, on the order of 1014 G. As the source of the strongest magnetic fields in the universe, they are ideal objects to study the behavior of matter and light in this extreme environment. SGRs emit recurrent short duration, 0.1s, bursts of soft gamma-rays/hard X-rays that are expected to be highly polarized in the 2-10 keV energy range. By measuring the polarization of these bursts we can learn about the strength and configuration of the magnetic fields, the geometry of the emission region and the mass/radius relationship of the neutron star. Using the archival RXTE/PCA data we analyzed ~3 Ms of observations for SGR1806-20 and SGR1900+14. Over 5000 bursts were detected from the sources and each distribution of burst fluence was found to be well fit by a power law with an exponent of 1.60±0.02 for SGR1806-20 and 1.64±0.03 for SGR1900+14. The power law form holds over 4 magnitudes of fluence and the exponents were found to be independent of the level of burst activity. The exponent values suggest that SGR bursts are associated with a self-organized critical system, similar to earthquakes. To measure the polarization of SGR bursts a wide-field-of-view, large area detector is needed. To accomplish this we designed and tested a negative ion time projection chamber (NITPC) X-ray polarimeter which uses nitromethane (CH3NO¬2) as an electronegative gas additive. Utilizing a double gas electron multiplier (GEM) NITPC with CO2+CH3NO2 as a gas mixture we successfully measured gas gains, imaged photoelectron tracks and measured distributions of their length, measured drift velocity of negative ions in various electric fields, and measured modulation from polarized and unpolarized X-ray sources between 3 and 8 keV. Based on the lab instrument results and our SGR burst fluence analysis we propose an instrument appropriately sized for a NASA Small Mission Explorer Mission (SMEX) that would be capable of measuring the polarization of hundreds of bursts from an SGR in a state of high burst activity.

The diploma thesis deals with analysis and modeling of power line communication using NS-3. The introduction part summarizes basic information about PLC technology, distribution grids, and broadband standards. This is followed by the analysis of the transmission line and modulation method. Furthermore, the simulation tool and possibilities of its extension are described. The influence of different cross-section and type of line on channel capacity is examined in the practical part of this paper. The influence of repeaters on bitrate is examined as well. The medium-voltage line was implemented and further scenarios dealing with bitrate or optimal level of noise. The focus of the last part is to find the repeaters on the path and to determine the capacity and bitrate on the path of the large topology.

The main target of this work is to project and make a simple repeater working in 446 MHz tape called PMR. This repeater is made from functional station PMR and repeating program unit, which was constructed by the help of the system for recording and replaying sound. The repeater is managed by microcontroller Atmel from line AVR. The repeater records minimal and maximal temperature during its operation and its date and time is still actual thanks to transceiver DCF. It is possible to connect the transceiver with a computer by the serial link.

CMOS is well known for its ability to scale. This fact is reflected in the aggressive scaling on a continual basis from the invention of CMOS up to date. As devices are scaled, device performance improves due to shorter channel lengths and more densely packed functions for the same amount of area. In recent years, however, the performance gain obtained through scaling has begun to suffer under the degradation of the associate interconnect performance. As devices become smaller, interconnects need to follow. Unlike transistors, the scaling of interconnects results in higher capacitances and resistances, thereby limiting overall system performance. Trying to alleviate the delay effects results in increased power consumption, especially in global structures such as clock distribution networks. A possible solution to this problem is the use of optical interconnects, which are fast and much less lossy than the electrical equivalents. This dissertation describes an investigation on what future technology nodes will entail in terms of power consumption of clock networks, and what is required for an optical alternative to become feasible. A common clock configuration is used as a basis for comparison, where both electrical and optical networks are designed to component level. Optimisation is done on both to ensure a reasonable comparison, and the results of the respective power consumption components are then compared in order to find the criteria for a feasible optical clock distribution scheme. Copyright / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

La thèse propose l’étude de systèmes de constellations locales permettant le positionnement dans des milieux difficiles. Dans ce contexte, il apparaît que les trajets indirects perturbent la mesure du temps de propagation entre l’antenne de l’émetteur et l’antenne du récepteur. L’éblouissement entre les signaux, phénomène d’interférence du CDMA, est exacerbé à cause des distances courtes et des variations de puissance de réception. La thèse apporte des réponses à ces deux problématiques. Pour les trajets indirects nous proposons d’utiliser les mesures de phase de la porteuse qui y sont moins sensibles. Il faut alors solutionner le problème de l’ambiguïté entière sur ces mesures. Une méthode le permet sans avoir recours à une technique différentielle en utilisant une boucle de poursuite insensible aux trajets indirects : la SMICL. Pour l’éblouissement, nous avons développé trois approches. L’une d’elle utilise les séquences de longueurs maximales et permet de réduire notablement son importance. Une deuxième méthode, baptisé Technique de la Double Emission (TDE), permet de supprimer intégralement ces interférences pour une paire d’émetteurs lorsque leurs Doppler respectifs sont égaux. Nous avons étudié le cas où les Doppler sont différents et mis au point une version améliorée de la TDE, la TDE étendue à la porteuse, qui permet de supprimer les influences du Doppler. Nous avons également montré que cette dernière peut s’appliquer à un émetteur fixe en présence d’une constellation de satellites. Une troisième méthode, appelée TDE maximale, utilise à nouveau une séquence de longueur maximale pour étendre la méthode TDE au cas de plusieurs émetteurs en présence. / The thesis proposes the study of systems of local constellations for positioning indoors.In this context, it appears that indirect paths disturb the measurement of time delay between the transmitter antenna and receiver antenna. The Near-Far problem between signals, a CDMA interference phenomenon, is exacerbated because of the short distances and variations in received power. The thesis provides answers to these two issues.For indirect multipath we propose to use carrier phase measurements. It must then solve the problem of ambiguity on these measurements. A method without carrying out a differential technique is proposed: a tracking loop insensitive to indirect routes: the SMICL. For the Near-Far problem, we have developed three approaches. One approach uses sequences of maximum length and significantly reduces its influence. A second method, called the Double Transmission Technique (DTT), can completely remove the interference for a pair of transmitters when their respective Doppler are equal. We have studied the case where different Doppler and developed an improved version of the DTT, the DTT extended to the carrier, which eliminates the influence of the Doppler. We also showed that this may also be applied to a fixed transmitter in the presence of a constellation of satellites. A third method, called DTT maximum, again uses a maximum length sequence to extend the method to the case DTT in the presence of several transmitters.

With energy outputs >~10^51 erg in 0.1-1000 seconds, Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful events yet observed in the Universe. As such they are potential probes of the very early Universe, back to the era of re-ionisation and the first stars, but at the same time they have been observed to span a wide range in luminosity and redshift from the relatively local Universe (z~0.0085) out to z~6.29. GRBs divide into two classes based primarily on their duration as measured by T90 (the time taken to observe 90% of the total burst fluence). Long bursts (L-GRBs) have T90>~2 seconds, and shorts (S-GRBs) T90<~2 seconds. Though much has been learned regarding long duration GRBs since the first afterglow discovery in 1997 (including their likely association with massive core collapse supernovae), much remains unknown regarding short duration GRBs. In this work, after a brief historical introduction and review, we present analyses of the angular cross-correlation on the sky of short GRBs from the BATSE catalogue with galaxies in the local Universe sampled from the PSCz Redshift Survey and the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3). In particular we show that 20%+/-8% (1 sigma) of all BATSE short duration bursts (localised to 10 degrees or better) show correlation with galaxy samples (morphological T-type<=4) within ~112 Mpc. Our statistics thus provide evidence that a substantial fraction of BATSE short GRBs show a tendency to be associated with large scale structure on the sky traced by a variety of galaxy types. Short GRBs are believed to be produced in the final merger of compact object (neutron star-neutron star or neutron star-black hole) binaries, though other possible progenitors are known to exist. The short initial spike of a giant flare from a Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR) such as the December 27th 2004 event from SGR1806-20 would have been detectable by BATSE as a short GRB if it occurred in a galaxy within ~30-50 Mpc (assuming a distance to SGR1806-20 of 15 kpc). Using the observed luminosities and rates of Galactic SGR giant flares, as well as theoretical predictions for the rate of binary mergers, we investigate the ability of plausible Luminosity Functions (LF), singly and in combination, to reproduce our observed correlations and a cosmological S-GRB population. We find the correlations are best explained by a separate population of lower luminosity S-GRBs, with properties consistent with them being due to giant flares from extra-galactic SGRs. Overall predicted number counts are a good fit to the observed BATSE number counts, and furthermore, the wider redshift distribution is consistent with the early Swift S-GRB redshift distribution. The three closest GRBs which have been observed to date were all long duration bursts, and we have therefore also searched for cross-correlation signals between the BATSE long GRBs and local galaxies. The three nearby bursts shared several similar properties such as being under-luminous, spectrally soft and of low variability. We have therefore also investigated a subset of L-GRBs with light curve properties similar to these known nearby bursts. The whole sample is found to exhibit a correlation level consistent with zero (1 sigma upper limit=10%, equivalent to 144 bursts) out to a radius of ~155 Mpc, but a spectrally soft, low observed fluence and low variability subset shows a correlation level of 28%+/-16% (=50+/-28 bursts) within 155 Mpc. These results are consistent with low-luminosity, low-variability bursts being a separate sub-class of L-GRBs which may be much more prevalent in the local Universe than their high-luminosity, cosmologically distant counterparts. To investigate this further, we once again examined plausible luminosity functions for single and dual high and low luminosity populations, based on observed intrinsic rates from the literature. The local population was once again found only to be produced to a sufficient level (while maintaining consistency with the observed overall number counts) by a separate low luminosity population with intrinsic rates several hundred times greater than their cosmological counterparts. Constraining the models via the Swift overall redshift distribution instead of threshold-adjusted BATSE number counts showed that the dual LF models were able to produce excellent fits to the entire redshift distribution while adequately reproducing a local population. Finally, suggestions are made as to the direction future work may follow in order to build on these initial investigations, as well as to how observations with future missions and detectors such as Fermi (formerly GLAST), Advanced LIGO and LOFAR may shed further light on nearby GRBs.

This semestral thesis focuses on the circuit design of the repeater for PLC communication in order to achieve greater distance in communication. It can also serve as a bridge for a separate modem device power grid. In this work we discuss the involvement of individual assembly parts repeater and proposed method of connection.

The study presented in this thesis is focused on the investigation of wireless application in industrial environment. The objective of this work is to provide an insight on the development of the wireless machine to machine (M2M) application, and a systematic approach for improving the application reliability on radio link level by end users. As a specific case, ABB Robotics’ Remote Service concept is examined to check whether the selection of cellular technology as its wireless access method and the choice of standard radio link components are able to satisfy the application requirement under different circumstances. Several modifications of the radio link components and topologies, e.g. repeater system, combiner, etc, are proposed for the enhancement of radio link reliability. Theoretical evaluations of these options are based on detailed radio link calculation and MATLAB simulation using propagation model dedicated for industrial environment. Furthermore, on site test is carried out to validate the theoretical evaluations. The M2M market investigation is also included in the task, in order to select the most cost-effective components from different suppliers. While walking through the radio link optimization process of the specific case, necessary information and knowledge common to all wireless M2M application are explained. In the end, in addition to a guide line for installation and other supporting documents regarding to the Remote Service, some rules of thumb available for the radio link optimization in all kinds of industrial environments are generalized and presented in the form of a flowchart, which can be beneficial for those support engineers of the application provider, who are not necessarily experts in wireless technology.

The last few decades have been a very exciting period in thedevelopment of micro-electronics and brought us to the brink ofimplementing entire systems on a single chip, on a hithertounimagined scale. However an unforeseen challenge has croppedup in the form of managing wires, which have become the mainbottleneck in performance, masking the blinding speed of activedevices. A major problem is that increasingly complicatedeffects need to be modelled, but the computational complexityof any proposed model needs to be low enough to allow manyiterations in a design cycle. This thesis addresses the issue of closed form modelling ofthe response of coupled interconnect systems. Following astrict mathematical approach, second order models for thetransfer functions of coupled RC trees based on the first andsecond moments of the impulse response are developed. The2-pole-1-zero transfer function that is the best possible fromthe available information is obtained for the signal path fromeach driver to the output in multiple aggressor systems. Thisallows the complete response to be estimated accurately bysumming up the individual waveforms. The model represents theminimum complexity for a 2-pole-1-zero estimate, for this classof circuits. Also proposed are new techniques for the optimisation ofwires in on-chip buses. Rather than minimising the delay overeach individual wire, the configuration that maximises thetotal bandwidth over a number of parallel wires isinvestigated. It is shown from simulations that there is aunique optimal solution which does not necessarily translate tothe maximum possible number of wires, and in fact deviatesconsiderably from it when the resources available for repeatersare limited. Analytic guidelines dependent only on processparameters are derived for optimal sizing of wires andrepeaters. Finally regular tiled architectures with a commoncommunication backplane are being proposed as being the mostefficient way to implement systems-on-chip in the deepsubmicron regime. This thesis also considers the feasibility ofimplementing a regular packet-switched network-on-chip in atypical future deep submicron technology. All major physicalissues and challenges are discussed for two differentarchitectures and important limitations are identified.

In this thesis, we investigate the quantum mechanical interaction of light with matter in the form of a gas of ultracold atoms: the atomic ensemble. We present a theoretical analysis of two problems, which involve the interaction of quantized electromagnetic fields (called signal and idler) with the atomic ensemble (i) cascade two-photon emission in an atomic ladder configuration, and (ii) photon frequency conversion in an atomic diamond configuration. The motivation of these studies comes from potential applications in long-distance quantum communication where it is desirable to generate quantum correlations between telecommunication wavelength light fields and ground level atomic coherences. In the two systems of interest, the light field produced in the upper arm of an atomic Rb level scheme is chosen to lie in the telecom window. The other field, resonant on a ground level transition, is in the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Telecom light is useful as it minimizes losses in the optical fiber transmission links of any two long-distance quantum communication device. We develop a theory of correlated signal-idler pair correlation. The analysis is complicated by the possible generation of multiple excitations in the atomic ensemble. An analytical treatment is given in the limit of a single excitation assuming adiabatic laser excitations. The analysis predicts superradiant timescales in the idler emission in agreement with experimental observation. To relax the restriction of a single excitation, we develop a different theory of cascade emission, which is solved by numerical simulation of classical stochastic differential equation using the theory of open quantum systems. The simulations are in good qualitative agreement with the analytical theory of superradiant timescales. We further analyze the feasibility of this two-photn source to realize the DLCZ protocol of the quantum repeater communication system. We provide a quantum theory of near-infrared to telecom wavelength conversion in the diamond configuration. The system provides a crucial part of a quantum-repeater memory element, which enables a "stored" near-infrared photon to be converted to a telecom wavelength for transmission without the destruction of light-atom quantum correlation. We calculate the theoretical conversion efficiency, analyzing the role of optical depth of the ensemble, pulse length, and quantum fluctuations on the process.