Zugl.: Bonn, Univ., Diss., 2005

Semiconductor industry goals for the quality of shipped products continue to get higher to satisfy customer requirements. Higher quality of shipped electronic devices can only be obtained by thorough tests of the manufactured components. Scan chains are universally used in large industrial designs in order to cost effectively test manufactured electronic devices. They contain nearly half of the logic transistors in large industrial designs. Yet, faults in the scan cells are not directly targeted by the existing tests. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the detectability of the faults internal to scan cells. In this thesis, we analyze the detection of line stuck-at, transistor stuck-on, resistive opens and bridging faults in scan cells. Both synchronous and asynchronous scan cells are considered. We define the notion of half-speed flush test and demonstrate that such new tests increase coverage of internal faults in scan cells. A new set of flush tests is proposed and such tests are applied at higher temperatures to detect scan cell internal opens with a wider range of resistances. We also propose new scan based tests to further increase the coverage of those opens. The proposed tests are shown to achieve the maximum possible coverage of opens in transistors internal to scan cells. For an asynchronous scan cell considered, two new flush tests are added to cover the faults that are not detected by the tests for synchronous scan cells. An analysis of detection of a set of scan cell internal bridging faults is described. Both zero-resistance and nonzero-resistance bridging fault models are considered. We show that the detection of some zero-resistance non-feedback bridging faults requires two-pattern tests. We classify the undetectable faults based on the reasons for their undetectability. We also propose an enhanced logic BIST architecture that accomplishes the new flush tests we propose to detect scan cell internal opens. The effectiveness of these new methods to detect scan cell internal faults is demonstrated by experimental results using some standard scan cells from a large industrial design.

Th. Etat--Musicologie--Tours--Univ. François Rabelais, 2001. / Catalogue commenté des oeuvres de Stuck p. 845-866. Sources et bibliogr. p. 867-892. Index.

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Background: The purpose of this master thesis was to investigate what generic strategies are utilized by big players in the solar photovoltaic industry to improve their competitive positions. The continuous expansion of the solar market indicated the significance of this research, since the correctly chosen strategy has a direct influence on the success and prosperity of the growing and developing high tech companies.Aim: The first aim of the study was to examine the applicability of Michael Porter‟s theory of generic strategies to the high tech industry, to be more precise the solar photovoltaic industry. The second aim of the study was to explore the cases, if any, when the simultaneous pursuit of more than one generic strategy was possible. The last but not the least aim was to deeply investigate the potential of the differentiation strategy and the effect it has on the companies.Definitions: The continuous utilization of the following concepts is present in the research: Generic strategies – the three different strategic approaches – cost leadership, differentiation, and focus – the companies can undertake to build a strong competitive advantage and outperform their competitors Differentiation – a case when a firm‟s offering is preferred, on some buying occasions (or by some customers all of the time) over rival firm‟s offerings Solar energy – alternative solutions of receiving energy directly from the sun – using solar modules which convert sunrays into electricityMethodology: Qualitative research methodology was used in this study. The in depth analyses of three case companies were done mainly by means of collecting the secondary data. In addition to that two out of three companies were contacted in order to conduct personal interviews via phone and email. Their answers were used as a supportive tool for the developed propositions.Results: The collected and analyzed secondary data together with the outcomes of the interviews revealed the flaws and limitations of Porter‟s theory. The simultaneous pursuit of two strategies was proven not only to be taking place, furthermore, to be leading to prosperity in some situations. The new model was developed which showed that the pursuit of two strategies is more of a necessity under certain circumstances. A thorough examination of the differentiation concept resulted in discovering the ways and methods which could be used by companies to strengthen their market positions.

abstract: Reliable and secure operation of bulk power transmission system components is an important aspect of electric power engineering. Component failures in a transmission network can lead to serious consequences and impact system reliability. The operational health of the transmission assets plays a crucial role in determining the reliability of an electric grid. To achieve this goal, scheduled maintenance of bulk power system components is an important activity to secure the transmission system against unanticipated events. This thesis identifies critical transmission elements in a 500 kV transmission network utilizing a ranking strategy. The impact of the failure of transmission assets operated by a major utility company in the Southwest United States on its power system network is studied. A methodology is used to quantify the impact and subsequently rank transmission assets in decreasing order of their criticality. The analysis is carried out on the power system network using a node breaker model and steady state analysis. The light load case of spring 2019, peak load case of summer 2023 and two intermediate load cases have been considered for the ranking. The contingency simulations and power flow studies have been carried out using a commercial power flow study software package, Positive Sequence Load Flow (PSLF). The results obtained from PSLF are analyzed using Matlab to obtain the desired ranking. The ranked list of transmission assets will enable asset managers to identify the assets that have the most significant impact on the overall power system network performance. Therefore, investment and maintenance decisions can be made effectively. A conclusion along with a recommendation for future work is also provided in the thesis. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2019

Europa står inför en historiskt unik situation till följd av de demografiska förändringarna. Den historiska situationen beror på att andelen äldre på jorden ökar som ett resultat av drastiskt förbättrade hälsotillstånd tillsammans med mycket låga födelsetal i många länder, inte minst i Sverige. Studien ägnar sig åt att utforska och kartlägga strategier som svenska arbetsgivare använder för att stödja en förlängning av äldre medarbetares yrkesliv. Genom en tvärvetenskaplig metod av kvantitativa och kvalitativa analyser av organisationernas verksamheter, har mönster och hinder för åldersrelaterade anpassningar upptäckts. Resultaten avslöjar att en betydande majoritet av respondenterna inte genomför några specifika anpassningar för äldre arbetstagare. I stället är ospecificerade arbetsanpassningar den mest frekventa formen av åldersrelaterad anpassning bland de få organisationer som tillämpar sådana åtgärder. Brist på resurser, arbetsuppgifternas karaktär samt andra typer av anpassningar för samtliga medarbetare framstår som huvudhindren i arbetet med åldersrelaterad anpassning. Dessa resultat speglar äldre medarbetares situation på arbetsmarknaden och de utmaningar som medföljer den demografiska förändringen på makro-, meso- och mikronivå. Utifrån tidigare forskning och teorier används begreppen, push, stay, pull, jump och stuck för att skapa en nyanserad bild samt nå fördjupad insikt i hur dessa mekanismer påverkar äldre medarbetares pensionsbeslut. Genom att kartlägga och belysa organisationernas roll inom hållbart arbetsliv skapas en ökad förståelse kring meso-perspektivets betydelse i ämnet. Detta möjliggör det förändringsarbete som krävs för att skapa ett hållbart arbetsliv som gynnar de äldre medarbetarna, organisationerna och hela samhället.

Submitted by PPG Ci?ncia da Computa??o (ppgcc@pucrs.br) on 2018-05-21T13:19:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FELIPE_AUGUSTO_KUENTZER_TES.pdf: 3277301 bytes, checksum: 7e77c5eb72299302d091329bde56b953 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sheila Dias (sheila.dias@pucrs.br) on 2018-06-01T12:13:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 FELIPE_AUGUSTO_KUENTZER_TES.pdf: 3277301 bytes, checksum: 7e77c5eb72299302d091329bde56b953 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-01T12:33:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FELIPE_AUGUSTO_KUENTZER_TES.pdf: 3277301 bytes, checksum: 7e77c5eb72299302d091329bde56b953 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-28 / ? medida que o projeto de VLSI avan?a para tecnologias ultra submicron, as margens de atraso adicionadas para compensar variabilidades de processo de fabrica??o, temperatura de opera??o e tens?o de alimenta??o, tornam-se uma parte significativa do per?odo de rel?gio em circuitos s?ncronos tradicionais. As arquiteturas resilientes a varia??es de atraso surgiram como uma solu??o promissora para aliviar essas margens de tempo projetadas para o pior caso, melhorando o desempenho do sistema e reduzindo o consumo de energia. Essas arquiteturas incorporam circuitos adicionais para detec??o e recupera??o de viola??es de atraso que podem surgir ao projetar o circuito com margens de tempo menores. Os sistemas ass?ncronos apresentam potencial para melhorar a efici?ncia energ?tica e o desempenho devido ? aus?ncia de um sinal de rel?gio global. Al?m disso, os circuitos ass?ncronos s?o conhecidos por serem robustos a varia??es de processo, tens?o e temperatura. Blade ? um modelo que incorpora as vantagens de projeto ass?ncrono e resilientes a varia??es de atraso. No entanto, o Blade ainda apresenta desafios em rela??o ? sua testabilidade, o que dificulta sua aplica??o comercial ou em larga escala. Embora o projeto visando testabilidade com Scan seja amplamente utilizado na ind?stria, os altos custos de sil?cio associados com o seu uso no Blade podem ser proibitivos. Por outro lado, os circuitos ass?ncronos podem apresentar vantagens para testes funcionais, enquanto o circuito resiliente fornece feedback cont?nuo durante o funcionamento normal do circuito, uma caracter?stica que pode ser aplicada para testes concorrentes. Nesta Tese, a testabilidade do Blade ? avaliada sob uma perspectiva diferente, onde o circuito implementado com o Blade apresenta propriedades de confiabilidade que podem ser exploradas para testes. Inicialmente, um m?todo de classifica??o de falhas que relaciona padr?es comportamentais com falhas estruturais dentro da l?gica de detec??o de erro e uma nova implementa??o orientada para teste desse m?dulo de detec??o s?o propostos. A parte de controle ? analisada para falhas internas, e um novo projeto ? proposto, onde o teste ? melhorado e o circuito pode ser otimizado pelo fluxo de projeto. Um m?todo original de medi??o de tempo das linhas de atraso tamb?m ? abordado. Finalmente, o teste de falhas de atrasos em caminhos cr?ticos do caminho de dados ? explorado como uma consequ?ncia natural de um circuito implementado com Blade, onde o monitoramento cont?nuo para detec??o de viola??es de atraso fornece a informa??o necess?ria para a detec??o concorrente de viola??es que extrapolam a capacidade de recupera??o do circuito resiliente. A integra??o de todas as contribui??es fornece uma cobertura de falha satisfat?ria para um custo de ?rea que, para os circuitos avaliados nesta Tese, pode variar de 4,24% a 6,87%, enquanto que a abordagem Scan para os mesmos circuitos apresenta custo que varia de 50,19% a 112,70% em ?rea, respectivamente. As contribui??es desta Tese demonstraram que, com algumas melhorias na arquitetura do Blade, ? poss?vel expandir sua confiabilidade para al?m de um sistema de toler?ncia a viola??es de atraso no caminho de dados, e tamb?m um avan?o para teste de falhas (inclusive falhas online) de todo o circuito, bem como melhorar seu rendimento, e lidar com quest?es de envelhecimento. / As the VLSI design moves into ultra-deep-submicron technologies, timing margins added due to variabilities in the manufacturing process, operation temperature and supply voltage become a significant part of the clock period in traditional synchronous circuits. Timing resilient architectures emerged as a promising solution to alleviate these worst-case timing margins, improving system performance and/or reducing energy consumption. These architectures embed additional circuits for detecting and recovering from timing violations that may arise after designing the circuit with reduced time margins. Asynchronous systems, on the other hand, have a potential to improve energy efficiency and performance due to the absence of a global clock. Moreover, asynchronous circuits are known to be robust to process, voltage and temperature variations. Blade is an asynchronous timing resilient template that leverages the advantages of both asynchronous and timing resilient techniques. However, Blade still presents challenges regarding its testability, which hinders its commercial or large-scale application. Although the design for testability with scan chains is widely applied in the industry, the high silicon costs associated with its use in Blade can be prohibitive. Asynchronous circuits can also present advantages for functional testing, and the timing resilient characteristic provides continuous feedback during normal circuit operation, which can be applied for concurrent testing. In this Thesis, Blade?s testability is evaluated from a different perspective, where circuits implemented with Blade present reliability properties that can be explored for stuck-at and delay faults testing. Initially, a fault classification method that relates behavioral patterns with structural faults inside the error detection logic and a new test-driven implementation of this detection module are proposed. The control part is analyzed for internal faults, and a new design is proposed, where the test coverage is improved and the circuit can be further optimized by the design flow. An original method for time measuring delay lines is also addressed. Finally, delay fault testing of critical paths in the data path is explored as a natural consequence of a Blade circuit, where the continuous monitoring for detecting timing violations provide the necessary feedback for online detection of these delay faults. The integration of all the contributions provides a satisfactory fault coverage for an area overhead that, for the evaluated circuits in this thesis, can vary from 4.24% to 6.87%, while the scan approach for the same circuits implies an area overhead varying from 50.19% to 112.70%, respectively. The contributions of this Thesis demonstrated that with a few improvements in the Blade architecture it is possible to expand its reliability beyond a timing resilient system to delay violations in the data path, but also advances for fault testing (including online faults) of the entire circuit, yield, and aging.

Thesis (PhDAgric (Viticulture and Oenology. Wine Biotechnology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Stuck alcoholic fermentations are a major enological problem for the international winemaking industry. Incomplete wine fermentations are frequently characterized by high residual fructose concentrations and the near-absence of residual glucose, a fact that is due to the glucophilic character of the wine yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Wines with high contents of post fermentation sugar are very susceptible for microbial spoilage since residual fructose and/or glucose can be metabolized by bacteria and yeast to undesired by-products such as volatile acid and off-flavours, resulting in wine spoilage and considerable economic losses. It has been reported that stuck fermentations are usually caused by several synergistically acting inhibition factors, and the glucose to fructose ratio (GFR) is thought to play an important role in this context. This study is aimed at contributing towards a better understanding of this industrial problem, and at finding industrially applicable solutions. In a first part, this study describes the isolation of two appropriate strains of the fructophilic yeast Zygosaccharomyces bailii from the natural microflora of grapevine, followed by trials in small scale test fermentations using stuck industrial fermentations as model media. These experiments were expanded to also investigate large scale industrial fermentations. As a result, a strategy for the treatment of stuck fermentations was developed and successfully applied in several wineries with fermentation problems. This methodology represents an entirely novel and industrially applicable solution to high residual fructose levels. In a second part, the data contributes to elucidating the molecular nature of the fructophilic phenotype of Z. bailii by characterizing some of the genes and proteins that may be responsible for the fructophilic character. In particular, the investigation focused on the first two steps of hexose metabolism, the transport of sugar into the cell by permeases and sugar phosphorylation by hexokinases, which combined are thought to be primarily responsible for sugar preference. One result of this study was Fructoferm W3©, a dry yeast product which is commercially available. Fructoferm W3 was awarded with the innovation medal for enological products at Intervitis/Interfructa, Stuttgart, Germany in 2007. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die voorkoms van steek alkoholiese fermentasies is ‘n ernstige problem in die internasionale wyn industrie. Onvolledige fermentasies word dikwels gekenmerk deur hoë residuele fruktose konsentrasies en die veitlike afwesigheid van residuele glukose. Die kenmerke kan meestal toegeskryf word aan die glukofilliese kakakter van die wyngis Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Wyne met ‘n hoë suiker inhoud na die afloop van fermentasie is vatbaar vir mikrobiese bederf aangesien residuele fruktose en/of glukose gemetaboliseer kan word deur bakterië en gis om ongewenste byprodukte soos vlugtige sure en bygeure te vorm wat kan lei tot wyn bederf en aansienlike ekonomies verlies. Dit is vasgestel dat steek fermentasies gewoonlik veroorsaak word deur verskeie sinergisties werkende inhibisie faktore, waartoe die glukose/fruktose verhouding ‘n noemenswaardiege bydrae lewer. Die mikpunt van hierdie studie was om ‘n bydrae te lewer tot die begrip van steek fermentasies en die daarstelling van moontlike industriële oplossings. Die eerste deel van die werk beskryf die isolasie van twee rasse van die gis Zygosaccharomyces baillie uit die natuurlike wingerd mikroflora, gevolg deur steekproewe in die vorm van kelinskaalse fermentasies met steek industriële fermentasies gebruik as model media. Hierdie ekserimente is vervolgens uitgebrei om grootskaalse industriële steek fermentasies te bestudeer. Die uitkoms van hierdie werk het gelei tot die ontwikkeling van ‘n strategie vir die behandeling van steek fermentasies wat susksesvol toegepas is in verskeie wynmakerye. Die metodiek bring ‘n nuwe en industrieel toepasbare oplossing vir hoë residuele fruktose vlakke. Die data aangebied in die tweede afdeling dra by tot die verheldering van die molekulêre natuur van die fruktofilliese fenotipe van Z. baillie deur die tipering van gene en protiëne wat moontlik verantwoordelik is vir die fruktofilliese karakter van die gis. Die ondersoek het spesifiek op die eerste twee stappe van heksose metabolisme, naamlik die invoer van suiker in die sel deur permeases en suiker fosforilering deur heksokinases, gekonsentreer. Die kombinasie van die twee prosesse is vermoedelik verantwoordelik vir die regulering van suiker voorkeur. ‘n Gevolg van die studie was die ontwikkeling van ‘n droë gisproduk, Fructferm W3©, wat kommersieel beskikbaar gestel is. Fructoferm W3 is in 2007 toegeken met die innovasie medalje vir wynkundige produkte by Intervittis/Interfructa in Stuttgart, Duitsland.