Implementation of a mobile spectrometer using a near infrared MEMS Fabry–Pérot interferometer sensor

Miniaturised MEMS-based Fabry-Pérot interferometer (FPI) spectral sensors allow the design of compact spectrometers in the near infrared (NIR) range. These small-size instruments can be used for quality control of alimentation products, sorting of plastics and fabrics in respect to the material composition or defining genuineness of goods. This article describes design details and achieved results in development of an inexpensive user friendly hand-held NIR spectrometer incorporating a MEMS-FPI sensor with the spectral range of 1550–1850 nm. Implemented electronic circuitry as well as the optical configuration of the device are discussed, used electronic components and the background for the choice of the light source are presented. Furthermore, the associated software for device operation and data visualisation is described. Achieved technical parameters of the device are discussed and illustrated by examples of acquired spectra. Shared experience in operating a MEMS-FPI sensor could be especially useful for designers targeting low-cost instruments for use by general public.

Passivation of miniature microwave coplanar waveguides using a thin film fluoropolymer electret

The insertion losses of miniature gold/silicon-on-insulator (SOI) coplanar waveguides (CPW) are rendered low, stable, and light insensitive when covered with a thin film (95 nm) fluoropolymer deposited by a trifluoromethane (CHF3) plasma. Microwave characterization (0–50 GHz) of the CPWs indicates that the fluoropolymer stabilizes a hydrogen-passivated silicon surface between the CPW tracks. The hydrophobic nature of the fluoropolymer acts as a humidity barrier, meaning that the underlying intertrack silicon surfaces do not re-oxidize over time—something that is known to increase losses. In addition, the fluoropolymer thin film also renders the CPW insertion losses insensitive to illumination with white light (2400 lx)—something potentially advantageous when using optical microscopy observations during microwave measurements. Capacitance–voltage (CV) measurements of gold/fluoropolymer/silicon metal–insulator-semiconductor (MIS) capacitors indicate that the fluoropolymer is an electret—storing positive charge. The experimental results suggest that the stored positive charge in the fluoropolymer electret and charge trapping influence surface-associated losses in CPW—MIS device modelling supports this. Finally, and on a practical note, the thin fluoropolymer film is easily pierced by commercial microwave probes and does not adhere to them—facilitating the repeatable and reproducible characterization of microwave electronic circuitry passivated by thin fluoropolymer.

FTR-Based Expert System for Power Generation Units

The present expert system addresses the well-known problem existing on each large size boiler of a power generation utility - cleaning of fouling deposition created on the furnace walls and surfaces of heat exchangers. Continuous cleaning, which is a must, especially on large size units operated on fossil fuels, is very cumbersome and time-consuming procedure, mostly performed manually by technical staff sometime assisted by intelligence systems based on neural network. The expert system for cleaning suggested in the present study offers a new approach when the inference engine of the system is oriented to optimization of heat transfer inside the furnace. The target of optimization is maximization of the overall cleanliness factor of the furnace. On-going calculation of local heat transfer in different zones of the furnace is performed in real time by FTR devices positioned in different locations on the furnace wall and measuring continuously the Fouling Thickness and Reflectivity (FTR), along with local temperature of the flame. The system algorithm defines at each measurement cycle the optimal position where the next cleaning should be done and the corresponding signals are transferred by the system electronic circuitry to the controllers of the cleaning measures (the group of soot blowers to be activated). During the last two years our expert system has been successfully implemented on four coil-firing boilers of 500–600 MW on two power stations in Israel.

Optimization of DMG-CNTFET Photo Detector for Different Illumination Conditions by Nano Scale Size and Doping Through Self-consistent Poisson- Schrodinger Equations

In this paper, we propose a nano scale Dual Material Gate Carbon Nanotube field-effect transistor (DMG-CNTFET) photo detector based on self-consistent 2D Poisson and Schrodinger equation. The main advantage of the proposed device is the improved performance due to dual material gate consisting of two laterally contacting Molybdenum and Titanium metals (M1,M2) with two different work functions (𝜙𝑔𝑀1, 𝜙𝑔𝑀2). The 2D-Poisson equation is solved through finite difference method in open boundary for dark and illuminated condition. The Schrodinger equation is solved through non-equilibrium green function. The proposed DMG-CNTFET photo detector overcomes the problem of maximum thickness in gate oxide and gate size by nano-scaled sizing and highly doped source and drain. The gain and cut off frequency of the device are increased due to the reduced work function and the drain conductance. The characteristics of the proposed transistor are validated through various parameters such as drain current, transfer, sub threshold swing, trans-conductance, gain and cutoff frequency. From the simulation results, the proposed DMG-CNTFET photo detector provides better performance of trans conductance, gain and cutoff frequency. These device characteristics are the key parameters in the design and fabrication of various electronic circuitry and design and hence the relative performance improvement is achievable.

Design and Realization of an Inductive Power Transfer for Shuttles in Automated Warehouses

The inductive power transfer (IPT) is expected to greatly contribute towards electrification in transportation. In fact, IPT charging technology has the potential to overcome several limitations of conductive charging: in particular, the process can be fully automatable, and both static and dynamic charging are allowed, thus reducing the size of the battery pack. Additionally, safety is increased due to the absence of safety issues related to loss of cable insulation or to the unwanted interruption of the plug-socket connection. This paper presents, from a systematic approach, the design and realization of a prototype for IPT charging of autonomous shuttles in automated warehouses. First of all, the typical mission profile of the shuttle was properly identified, and a storage system based on power-oriented electrochemical cells was sized. Based on that, the architecture of the IPT system was chosen, both for transmitting and receiving sections. The pads were designed for this purpose, by considering the geometric constraints imposed by the manufacturer, through the utilization of the finite elements method. Finally, the power electronic circuitry was also designed. Numerical simulations of the components, as well as of the complete system, were performed and a prototype was built to widely verify the correspondence of the simulation outputs with the results obtained from an experimental measurements campaign.

Smart Circuit Breaker

This project is to supply single phase home appliances. This project is used for an alternative for MCB. MCB is fault current protective device which trip on fault current which flows in the circuit. MCB are based on the thermal bimetallic trip mechanism which is very slow and tripping time is based upon percentage of overloads MCB having bimetallic trip which gets derated after some mechanical operation and cause unwanted tripping. All the above faults will be overcome by smart circuit breakers which provide all types of protection such as overload, under voltage, high temperature and short circuit protection, this type of protection is necessary because, now days all, appliance such as LCD, Air conditioner, Refrigerator, etc consist of electronic circuitry which is voltage sensitive and get damage at voltage fluctuation. This project also monitors and display fault on LCD and stores the data for further action. Smart circuit breaker is fast acting and sense relay as fast as possible and trips the relay within 100msec. than MCB which takes 1000msec. to 1600msec. In addition to that LM 35 temperature sensor is also interface to microcontroller by if temperature exceed 550C microcontroller will trip the relay. The intention to use temperature sensor is to detect fire hazard in domestic purpose as well as commercial purpose.

SCAD Geo Spatial Web Solution

Local bodies like municipalities need collect different kind of taxes from the citizens. Every citizen need to pay Water Bills and Electricity Bills to the particular authorities. Actually a citizen want to pay his municipal tax means he should go to municipal office and collect the necessary bill, pay there only. Same as water and electricity bills. This is not an easy job to get all these tax information in different authorities now days. For that purpose we are developing this application, which can collect the tax information from different authorities based on the house no’s and owner name by using web services and stores the data in our own database. For getting the information regarding taxes citizens need to register first. The bill are calculating on different modes like annual, half yearly, quarterly etc... By using the user id and password citizens can log into the system and collect the necessary information from the home page. For this every user need to provide his house no and owner name. By clicking on the search button they will get their own. The smart city is equipped with the electronic circuitry where the weight of the garbage in the bin is measured and the value is updated in the database. The database of the families will be created and maintained by the municipality. A web portal gives the involved people and authorities access to the related information. A house is penalized for every kilogram more than the allotted garbage weight limit. Further enhancements are explored. Thus, the residents are incentivized to produce lesser waste.

Extended Kalman Filter Application in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Sensorless Control

This thesis presents the modeling, analysis, design and experimental validation of a robust sensorless control method for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based on Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to accurately estimate speed and rotor position. Currently, there is no robust position/speed sensorless control method available for the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) in the published literature. Traditionally, commercial off-the-shelf simulation models for PMSM do not incorporate initial rotor position and simplified steady-state based modeling of the associated power electronic circuitry and controls are used. These limitations have prevented the development and application of a robust real-time sensorless control method with good dynamic performance over the full speed range for the PMSM. The main focus of this thesis is to overcome these limitations. In particular, a detailed real-time PMSM model in MATLAB/Simulink simulation environment is developed which is used to validate the EKF sensorless control method by varying the initial position of the rotor. The proposed position/speed sensorless control based on EKF method along with all the power electronic circuitry are modeled in this simulation environment. This user-friendly simulation and rapid-prototyping platform is then effectively used to predict, analyse, fine-tune and validate proper operation of the proposed EKF sensorless control method for all operating conditions. In particular, different control strategies are reviewed and the performance of the proposed EKF sensorless control method is critically assessed and validated for different types of dynamic and static torque loads. The robustness of the proposed EKF sensorless method is demonstrated by validating proper operation of the closed-loop motor control system for different rotor initial positions and insensitivity of the EKF speed/position estimation method to the PMSM parameter variations. Proper operation of the proposed EKF based sensorless control method for a high speed permanent magnet synchronous machine is verified experimentally in the lab at Honeywell.

Extended Kalman Filter Application in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Sensorless Control

This thesis presents the modeling, analysis, design and experimental validation of a robust sensorless control method for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based on Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to accurately estimate speed and rotor position. Currently, there is no robust position/speed sensorless control method available for the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) in the published literature. Traditionally, commercial off-the-shelf simulation models for PMSM do not incorporate initial rotor position and simplified steady-state based modeling of the associated power electronic circuitry and controls are used. These limitations have prevented the development and application of a robust real-time sensorless control method with good dynamic performance over the full speed range for the PMSM. The main focus of this thesis is to overcome these limitations. In particular, a detailed real-time PMSM model in MATLAB/Simulink simulation environment is developed which is used to validate the EKF sensorless control method by varying the initial position of the rotor. The proposed position/speed sensorless control based on EKF method along with all the power electronic circuitry are modeled in this simulation environment. This user-friendly simulation and rapid-prototyping platform is then effectively used to predict, analyse, fine-tune and validate proper operation of the proposed EKF sensorless control method for all operating conditions. In particular, different control strategies are reviewed and the performance of the proposed EKF sensorless control method is critically assessed and validated for different types of dynamic and static torque loads. The robustness of the proposed EKF sensorless method is demonstrated by validating proper operation of the closed-loop motor control system for different rotor initial positions and insensitivity of the EKF speed/position estimation method to the PMSM parameter variations. Proper operation of the proposed EKF based sensorless control method for a high speed permanent magnet synchronous machine is verified experimentally in the lab at Honeywell.

Electronic warp-break detection mechanism for manual looms

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop a system that detects warp breakage in manual looms using simple mechanisms combined with electronic circuitry. Design/methodology/approach This study used the universal design methodology model where results from observations and interviews aided in designing the appropriate blueprints for the mechanism. Findings Testing procedures revealed that the conductivity of steel bars coupled with the weight of the droppers affected the efficiency of the mechanism. Additionally, the weight of the drop wires influenced the rising of the warp threads during shedding. Considering this, a plate thickness of 0.06 mm was ideal for the droppers which did not affect warp shedding. Test outcomes at the weaving shed proved the workability of the mechanism for timely or prompt repair of a broken warp by weavers that ensured fabric quality. Originality/value The issue of warp breaks remains a critical problem at weaving on manual looms which influence the quality of fabrics. These looms are used by craftsmen in producing interesting fabrics for the market of which they depend on for their living. Premise on this, a two-way (light + sound) alert system was developed to assist weavers to effectively locate and repair broken yarns. Additionally, weavers with special needs (blind people) would be notified on a warp break for immediate repair from someone. This would limit the unnecessary challenges associated with broken warp yarns during weaving.