Linearity and monotonicity of a 10-bit, 125 MHz, segmented current steering digital to analog converter (open access)

Linearity and monotonicity of a 10-bit, 125 MHz, segmented current steering digital to analog converter

The purpose of this research is to determine the linearity and monotonicity of the THS5651IDW digital to analog converter (DAC), a prototype of the future Texas Instruments TLV5651, 10-bit, 125 MHz communication DAC. Testing was conducted at the Texas Instruments facility on Forest Lane, Dallas, Texas. Texas Instruments provided test equipment, software and laboratory space to obtain test data. Analysis of the data found the DAC to be monotonic since the magnitude of the differential nonlinearity (DNL) was less than ± 1 least significant bit (LSB) and the integral nonlinearity (INL) was less than ± 0.5 LSB. The study also showed that the DAC has primarily negative DNL although the DNL is well within the desired specification.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Bittle, Charles C.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Effect of Engineered Surfaces on Valve Performance

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Performance of air operated valves is a major maintenance concern in process industries. Anecdotal information indicates that reliability of some high maintenance valves has been improved by using an ion deposition process to achieve engineered surfaces on selected components. This project compared friction for various surface treatments of selected valve components. Results indicate valve performance may be slightly more consistent when an engineered surface is applied in the valve packing area; however surface treatment in this area does not appear to have a dominant affect on reducing valve friction. Results indicate a linear relation between stem friction and torque applied to packing flange nuts, and even after a valve is in service, controlled packing adjustments can be made without significantly changing valve stroke time.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Pope, Larry G.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effects of a Surface Engineered Metallic Coating on Elastomeric Valve Stem Seal Leakage (open access)

Effects of a Surface Engineered Metallic Coating on Elastomeric Valve Stem Seal Leakage

Valve stem seal leakage is a major source of fugitive emissions, and controlling these emissions can result in added expense in leak detection and repair programs. Elastomeric O-rings can be used as valve stem seals, and O-ring manufacturers recommend lubrication of elastomeric seals to prevent damage and to assure proper sealing. In this research, a metallic coating was applied as a lubricant using a vacuum vapor deposition process to the surface of elastomeric valve stem seals. Valve stem leak measurements were taken to determine if the coated O-rings, alone or with the recommended lubrication, reduced valve stem seal leakage. This research determined that the metallic coating did not reduce valve stem leakage.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Taylor, John Abner
System: The UNT Digital Library
Laser Cutting Machine: Justification of initial costs (open access)

Laser Cutting Machine: Justification of initial costs

The Industrial Laser is firmly established in metalcutting as the tool of choice for many applications. The elevator division of Montgomery KONE Inc., in an effort to move towards quality, ontime, complete deliveries and 100% customer satisfaction, decided to invest in new equipment to improve manufacturing processes. A huge investment is proposed for a laser-cutting machine. It is the responsibility of Manufacturing Engineering to direct the management by justifying its benefits, which includes payback time and financial gains. Factors such as common line cutting, automated material handling system and cutting time were involved in justification of the initial cost of a laser-cutting machine. Comparative statistics on appropriate factors accurately determine and justify the initial cost of a laser-cutting machine.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Nagaraja, Dwarakish
System: The UNT Digital Library

A model for designing a new telecommunication system in Mongolia

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The objective of this research is to design, and determine the feasibility of, a telecommunication system for the city of Erdenet, Mongolia. The Mongolian Telecommunication Company, Telecommunication Company of Erdenet city, and the National Statistical Office of Mongolia provided the data required for telecommunication forecasting of Erdenet. The literature review and analysis of the telecommunication forecasting indicate the need for a model of a new Telecommunication system in Erdenet, Mongolia. The model, as indicated, should become a useful example for planning and updating the telecommunication system in Mongolia. The design of a proposed telecommunication network involves the following considerations: analyzing and forecasting telephone traffic, calculating the required number of channels, determining exchange locations, traffic matrix, and establishing a basic hierarchical structure.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Baatarjav, Enkhbat
System: The UNT Digital Library
Determination of the Shelf Life of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors. (open access)

Determination of the Shelf Life of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors.

The aluminum electrolytic capacitor is used extensively in the electric utility industry. A factor limiting the storage of spare capacitors is the integrity of the aluminum oxide dielectric, which over time breaks down contributing to a shelf life currently estimated at one nuclear power electric generating station to be approximately five years. This project examined the electrical characteristics of naturally aged capacitors of several different styles to determine if design parameters were still within limits. Additionally, the effectiveness of a technique known as “Reforming” was examined to determine its impact on those characteristics.
Date: May 2002
Creator: Wynne, Edward McFaddin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Using Motor Electrical Signature Analysis to Determine the Mechanical Condition of Vane-Axial Fans (open access)

Using Motor Electrical Signature Analysis to Determine the Mechanical Condition of Vane-Axial Fans

The purpose of this research was a proof of concept using a fan motor stator as transducer to monitor motor rotor and attached axial fan for mechanical motion. The proof was to determine whether bearing faults and fan imbalances could be detected in vane-axial fans using Motor Electrical Signature Analysis (MESA). The data was statistically analyzed to determine if the MESA systems could distinguish between baseline conditions and discrete fault frequencies for the three test conditions: bearing inner race defect, bearing outer race defect, and fan imbalance. The statistical conclusions for these proofs of concept were that MESA could identify all three faulted conditions.
Date: August 2002
Creator: Doan, Donald Scott
System: The UNT Digital Library
FPGA Prototyping of a Watermarking Algorithm for MPEG-4 (open access)

FPGA Prototyping of a Watermarking Algorithm for MPEG-4

In the immediate future, multimedia product distribution through the Internet will become main stream. However, it can also have the side effect of unauthorized duplication and distribution of multimedia products. That effect could be a critical challenge to the legal ownership of copyright and intellectual property. Many schemes have been proposed to address these issues; one is digital watermarking which is appropriate for image and video copyright protection. Videos distributed via the Internet must be processed by compression for low bit rate, due to bandwidth limitations. The most widely adapted video compression standard is MPEG-4. Discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain watermarking is a secure algorithm which could survive video compression procedures and, most importantly, attacks attempting to remove the watermark, with a visibly degraded video quality result after the watermark attacks. For a commercial broadcasting video system, real-time response is always required. For this reason, an FPGA hardware implementation is studied in this work. This thesis deals with video compression, watermarking algorithms and their hardware implementation with FPGAs. A prototyping VLSI architecture will implement video compression and watermarking algorithms with the FPGA. The prototype is evaluated with video and watermarking quality metrics. Finally, it is seen that the video qualities …
Date: May 2007
Creator: Cai, Wei
System: The UNT Digital Library
Preliminary design of a cryogenic thermoelectric generator. (open access)

Preliminary design of a cryogenic thermoelectric generator.

A cryogenic thermoelectric generator is proposed to increase the efficiency of a vehicle propulsion system that uses liquid nitrogen as its fuel. The proposed design captures some of the heat required for vaporizing or initial heating of the liquid nitrogen to produce electricity. The thermoelectric generator uses pressurized liquid nitrogen as its cold reservoir and ambient air as the high-temperature reservoir to generate power. This study concentrated on the selection of thermoelectric materials whose properties would result in the highest efficiency over the operating temperature range and on estimating the initial size of the generator. The preliminary selection of materials is based upon their figure of merit at the operating temperatures. The results of this preliminary design investigation of the cryogenic thermoelectric generator indicate that sufficient additional energy can be used to increase overall efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle of a vehicle propulsion system.
Date: May 2007
Creator: Sivapurapu, Sai Vinay Kumar
System: The UNT Digital Library
Characterization of Boron Nitride Thin Films on Silicon (100) Wafer. (open access)

Characterization of Boron Nitride Thin Films on Silicon (100) Wafer.

Cubic boron nitride (cBN) thin films offer attractive mechanical and electrical properties. The synthesis of cBN films have been deposited using both physical and chemical vapor deposition methods, which generate internal residual, stresses that result in delamination of the film from substrates. Boron nitride films were deposited using electron beam evaporation without bias voltage and nitrogen bombardment (to reduce stresses) were characterize using FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDS, TEM, and AFM techniques. In addition, a pin-on-disk tribological test was used to measure coefficient of friction. Results indicated that samples deposited at 400°C contained higher cubic phase of BN compared to those films deposited at room temperature. A BN film containing cubic phase deposited at 400°C for 2 hours showed 0.1 friction coefficient.
Date: August 2007
Creator: Maranon, Walter
System: The UNT Digital Library

Increasing the Dynamic Range of Audio THD Measurements Using a Novel Noise and Distortion Canceling Methodology

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The objective of this study was to determine how a new experimental methodology for measuring Total-Harmonic-Distortion (THD) of operational amplifiers functioned when compared with two standard methodologies, and whether the new methodology offers any improvement in noise floor and dynamic range along with distortion canceling of the sine-wave source used in the testing. The new methodology (THD) is being tested against two standard methodologies: Spectral Analysis using a tuned receiver type Spectrum Analyzer with Notch Filter pre-processing, and a digitized Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) using Notch Filter pre-processing. The THD results appear to agree across all methodologies, and across all items of the sample within all methodologies, to within a percent or less. The distortion and noise canceling feature of the new methodology appeared to function as expected and in accordance with theory. The sample tested in the study consisted of thirty-five NE5534 operational amplifiers produced by Texas Instruments, Inc. and purchased from a local store. The NE5534 is a low-noise, low-distortion, operational amplifier that is widely used in industry and is representative of today's best audio amplifiers.
Date: May 2003
Creator: Dunipace, Richard Alan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Susceptibility of a digital turbine control system to IEEE 802.11 compliant emissions. (open access)

Susceptibility of a digital turbine control system to IEEE 802.11 compliant emissions.

Within the nuclear industry, there have been numerous instances of radio transmissions interfering with sensitive plant equipment. Instances documented vary from minor instrument fluctuations to major plant transients including reactor trips. With the nuclear power industry moving toward digital technologies for control and reactor protection systems, concern exists regarding their potential susceptibility to contemporary wireless telecommunications technologies. This study evaluates the susceptibility of Comanche Peak's planned turbine controls upgrade to IEEE 802.11 compliant wireless radio emissions. The study includes a review of previous research, industry emissions standards, and technical overview of the various IEEE 802.11 protocols and details the testing methodology utilized to evaluate the digital control system. The results of this study concluded that the subject digital control system was unaffected by IEEE 802.11 compliant emissions even when the transmitter was in direct contact with sensitive components.
Date: December 2003
Creator: Carter, Clinton E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cost Savings Realized Through Proper Sizing of an Excessive Instrument Air System. (open access)

Cost Savings Realized Through Proper Sizing of an Excessive Instrument Air System.

The purpose of this research was to determine if installing a smaller air compressor could reduce the electrical usage of a large semiconductor manufacturing plant. A 200 horsepower Atlas Copco compressor was installed with the existing 500 horsepower Ingersoll-Rand compressors. Testing was conducted during the regular manufacturing process at MEMC Southwest in Sherman, Texas. Analysis of the data found that installing the new compressor could reduce electrical consumption. The study also found there are specific operational setpoints that allow the compressor to operate more efficiently.
Date: December 2003
Creator: Condron, Ewell D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sunlight readability and luminance characteristics of light-emitting diode push button switches. (open access)

Sunlight readability and luminance characteristics of light-emitting diode push button switches.

Lighted push button switches and indicators serve many purposes in cockpits, shipboard applications and military ground vehicles. The quality of lighting produced by switches is vital to operators' understanding of the information displayed. Utilizing LED technology in lighted switches has challenges that can adversely affect lighting quality. Incomplete data exists to educate consumers about potential differences in LED switch performance between different manufacturers. LED switches from four different manufacturers were tested for six attributes of lighting quality: average luminance and power consumption at full voltage, sunlight readable contrast, luminance contrast under ambient sunlight, legend uniformity, and dual-color uniformity. Three of the four manufacturers have not developed LED push button switches that meet lighting quality standards established with incandescent technology.
Date: May 2004
Creator: Fitch, Robert J.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Design of Power Amplifier Test Signals with a User-Defined Multisine

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Cellular radio communication involves wireless transmission and reception of signals at radio frequencies (RF). Base stations house equipment critical to the transmission and reception of signals. Power amplifier (PA) is a crucial element in base station assembly. PAs are expensive, take up space and dissipate heat. Of all the elements in the base station, it is difficult to design and operate a power amplifier. New designs of power amplifiers are constantly tested. One of the most important components required to perform this test successfully is a circuit simulator model of an entire communication system that generates a standard test signal. Standard test signals 524,288 data points in length require 1080 hours to complete one test of a PA model. In order to reduce the time taken to complete one test, a 'simulated test signal,' was generated. The objective of this study is to develop an algorithm to generate this 'simulated' test signal such that its characteristics match that of the 'standard' test signal.
Date: May 2004
Creator: Nagarajan, Preeti
System: The UNT Digital Library

Effects of Thickness and Indenter Tip Geometry in Nanoindentation of Nickel Films

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Nanoindentation has become a widely used technique to measure the mechanical properties of materials. Due to its capability to deform materials in micro- and nano-scale, nanoindentation has found more applications in characterizing the deformation behavior and determining the mechanical properties of thin films and coatings. This research deals with the characterization of samples received from Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD) and Integran Technologies Inc., Toronto, Canada and the objective of this investigation was to utilize the experimental data obtained from nanoindentation to determine the deformation behavior, mechanical properties of thin films on substrates and bulk materials, and the effect of geometrically different indenters (Berkovich, cubecorner, and conical). X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis were performed on these materials to determine the crystal orientation, grain size of the material, and also to measure any substrate effects like pile-up or sin-in respectively. The results indicate that indentation size effect (ISE) strongly depends on shape of the indenter and less sensitive to penetration depth where as the hardness measurements depends on shape of indenter and depth of penetration. There is a negligible strain rate dependency of hardness at deeper depths …
Date: May 2004
Creator: Parakala, Padma
System: The UNT Digital Library
Computer Virus Spread Containment Using Feedback Control. (open access)

Computer Virus Spread Containment Using Feedback Control.

In this research, a security architecture based on the feedback control theory has been proposed. The first loop has been designed, developed and tested. The architecture proposes a feedback model with many controllers located at different stages of network. The controller at each stage gives feedback to the one at higher level and a decision about network security is taken. The first loop implemented in this thesis detects one important anomaly of virus attack, rate of outgoing connection. Though there are other anomalies of a virus attack, rate of outgoing connection is an important one to contain the spread. Based on the feedback model, this symptom is fed back and a state model using queuing theory is developed to delay the connections and slow down the rate of outgoing connections. Upon implementation of this model, whenever an infected machine tries to make connections at a speed not considered safe, the controller kicks in and sends those connections to a delay queue. Because of delaying connections, rate of outgoing connections decrease. Also because of delaying, many connections timeout and get dropped, reducing the spread. PID controller is implemented to decide the number of connections going to safe or suspected queue. Multiple …
Date: December 2004
Creator: Yelimeli Guruprasad, Arun
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effect of Amines as Corrosion Inhibitors for a Low Carbon Steel in Power Industry (open access)

Effect of Amines as Corrosion Inhibitors for a Low Carbon Steel in Power Industry

Commonly used amines in power industry, including morpholine, DBU (1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene), and DMA (dimethylallylamine) were evaluated for their effect on AISI 1018 steel at 250oF. Samples were exposed to an autoclave containing amine added aqueous solution at pH of 9.5 for 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12 hours. Morphology studies were carried using scanning electron microscope (SEM), phase analysis was done utilizing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and weight loss was performed to assess kinetics of oxidation. Control samples showed the highest metal dissolution rate. DBU showed the best performance in metal protection and SEM indicated the presence of a free-crack layer formed by fine particles in that set. FTIR showed that DBU apparently favored the formation of magnetite. It is believed that fine particles impede intrusion of aggressive ions into the metal surface by forming a barrier layer. FTIR demonstrated that DMA formed more oxyhydroxides, whereas morpholine presented magnetite to hematite transformation as early as 2 hours. SEM revealed that control and DMA produced acicular particles characteristic of oxyhydroxides while morpholine and DBU presented more equiaxed particles.
Date: December 2004
Creator: Díaz, Jorge G.
System: The UNT Digital Library
FEM of nanoindentation on micro- and nanocrystalline Ni: Analysis of factors affecting hardness and modulus values. (open access)

FEM of nanoindentation on micro- and nanocrystalline Ni: Analysis of factors affecting hardness and modulus values.

Nanoindentation is a widely used technique to measure the mechanical properties of films with thickness ranging from nanometers to micrometers. A much better understanding of the contact mechanics is obtained mostly through finite element modeling. The experiments were modeled using the software package Nano SP1 that is based on COSMOSM™ (Structural Research & Analysis Corp, www.cosmosm.com), a finite element code. The fundamental material properties affecting pile-up are the ratio of the effective modulus to yield stress Eeff/σ and the work hardening behavior. Two separate cases of work hardening rates were considered; one with no work hardening rate and other with a linear work hardening rate. Specifically, it is observed that pile up is large only when hf/hmax is close to one and degree of work hardening rate is small. It should also be noted that when hf/hmax < 0.7 very little pile-up is observed no matter what the work-hardening behavior of the material. When pile-up occurs the contact area is greater than that predicted by the experimental methods and both the hardness and modulus are overestimated. In this report the amount by which these properties are overestimated are studied and got to be around 22% approx. Bluntness of the tip …
Date: August 2005
Creator: Pothapragada, Raja Mahesh
System: The UNT Digital Library
Indoor Propagation Modeling at 2.4 GHz for IEEE 802.11 Networks (open access)

Indoor Propagation Modeling at 2.4 GHz for IEEE 802.11 Networks

Indoor use of wireless systems poses one of the biggest design challenges. It is difficult to predict the propagation of a radio frequency wave in an indoor environment. To assist in deploying the above systems, characterization of the indoor radio propagation channel is essential. The contributions of this work are two-folds. First, in order to build a model, extensive field strength measurements are carried out inside two different buildings. Then, path loss exponents from log-distance path loss model and standard deviations from log-normal shadowing, which statistically describe the path loss models for a different transmitter receiver separations and scenarios, are determined. The purpose of this study is to characterize the indoor channel for 802.11 wireless local area networks at 2.4 GHz frequency. This thesis presents a channel model based on measurements conducted in commonly found scenarios in buildings. These scenarios include closed corridor, open corridor, classroom, and computer lab. Path loss equations are determined using log-distance path loss model and log-normal shadowing. The chi-square test statistic values for each access point are calculated to prove that the observed fading is a normal distribution at 5% significance level. Finally, the propagation models from the two buildings are compared to validate the …
Date: December 2005
Creator: Tummala, Dinesh
System: The UNT Digital Library
MBE Growth and Instrumentation (open access)

MBE Growth and Instrumentation

This thesis mainly aims at application of principles of engineering technology in the field of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). MBE is a versatile technique for growing epitaxial thin films of semiconductors and metals by impinging molecular beams of atoms onto a heated substrate under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions. Here, a LabVIEW® (laboratory virtual instrument engineering workbench) software (National Instruments Corp., http://www.ni.com/legal/termsofuse/unitedstates/usH) program is developed that would form the basis of a real-time control system that would transform MBE into a true-production technology. Growth conditions can be monitored in real-time with the help of reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) technique. The period of one RHEED oscillation corresponds exactly to the growth of one monolayer of atoms of the semiconductor material. The PCI-1409 frame grabber card supplied by National Instruments is used in conjunction with the LabVIEW software to capture the RHEED images and capture the intensity of RHEED oscillations. The intensity values are written to a text file and plotted in the form of a graph. A fast Fourier transform of these oscillations gives the growth rate of the epi-wafer being grown. All the data being captured by the LabVIEW program can be saved to file forming a growth pedigree …
Date: May 2006
Creator: Tarigopula, Sriteja
System: The UNT Digital Library
Propagation analysis of a 900 MHz spread spectrum centralized traffic signal control system. (open access)

Propagation analysis of a 900 MHz spread spectrum centralized traffic signal control system.

The objective of this research is to investigate different propagation models to determine if specified models accurately predict received signal levels for short path 900 MHz spread spectrum radio systems. The City of Denton, Texas provided data and physical facilities used in the course of this study. The literature review indicates that propagation models have not been studied specifically for short path spread spectrum radio systems. This work should provide guidelines and be a useful example for planning and implementing such radio systems. The propagation model involves the following considerations: analysis of intervening terrain, path length, and fixed system gains and losses.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Urban, Brian L.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Characterization of Iron Oxide Deposits Formed at Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station

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The presence of deposits leading to corrosion of the steam generator (SG) systems is a major contributor to operation and maintenance cost of pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants. Formation and transport of corrosion products formed due to the presence of impurities, metallic oxides and cations in the secondary side of the SG units result in formation of deposits. This research deals with the characterization of deposit samples collected from the two SG units (unit 1 and unit 2) at Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station (CPSES). X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) techniques have been used for studying the compositional and structural properties of iron oxides formed in the secondary side of unit 1 and unit 2. Magnetite (Fe3O4) was found to be predominant in samples from unit 1 and maghemite (g-Fe2O3) was found to be the dominant phase in case of unit 2. An attempt has been made to customize FTIR technique for analyzing different iron oxide phases present in the deposits of PWR-SG systems.
Date: May 2003
Creator: Namduri, Haritha
System: The UNT Digital Library

Synthesis of cubic boron nitride thin films on silicon substrate using electron beam evaporation.

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Cubic boron nitride (cBN) synthesis has gained lot of interest during the past decade as it offers outstanding physical and chemical properties like high hardness, high wear resistance, and chemical inertness. Despite of their excellent properties, every application of cBN is hindered by high compressive stresses and poor adhesion. The cost of equipment is also high in almost all the techniques used so far. This thesis deals with the synthesis of cubic phase of boron nitride on Si (100) wafers using electron beam evaporator, a low cost equipment that is capable of depositing films with reduced stresses. Using this process, need of ion beam employed in ion beam assisted processes can be eliminated thus reducing the surface damage and enhancing the film adhesion. Four sets of samples have been deposited by varying substrate temperature and the deposition time. scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques have been used to determine the structure and composition of the films deposited. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was performed on one of the samples to determine the thickness of the film deposited for the given deposition rate. Several samples showed dendrites being formed as …
Date: May 2004
Creator: Vemuri, Prasanna
System: The UNT Digital Library