Sharif Digital Repository

Reduction of cold start hydrocarbon (HC) emission requires a proper compromise between low engine-out HC emission and fast light-off of the three way catalytic converter (TWC). In this paper a model based approach is used to design and optimize a hybrid switching system for reducing HC emission of a mid-sized passenger car during the cold start phase of FTP-75. This hybrid system takes the benefit of increasing TWC temperature during the early stages of the driving cycle by switching between different operational modes. The switching times are optimized to reduce the cumulative tailpipe HC emission of an experimentally validated automotive emission model. It is shown that the new hybrid... 

The significant importance of micro-scaled devices in medicine, lab-on-a-chip, and etc resulted in a vast variety of researches. The idea behind the novel hydro magnetic micro-pump and flow controller is that ferromagnetic particles, mixed and dispersed in a carrier fluid, can be accumulated and retained at specific sites to form pistons in a micro-tube using some external magnetic field sources along the micro-tube. This external magnetic field is related to some solenoids, which are turned on and off alternatively. Depending upon dragging speed of these pistons, which itself is a function of switching time, this device can be used to either increase (pumping) or decrease (valving) the flow... 

A wideband integrated delay chain chip with 5-bit main delay control, two error correction bits, maximum delay of 125-and 3.9-ps delay resolution, designed and fabricated in a 0.18-μ m CMOS technology is presented. This delay chain is a cascade of seven passive internal-switched delay blocks which the five main bits are based on novel delay structures. The proposed delay structures are similar to second-, fourth-, and sixth-order all-pass networks and are robust to mismatch effects of resistive parasitics of transistor switches. Measurement results of the fabricated delay chain show 15.2-23.3-dB insertion loss and less than 3.3-ps rms delay error over the intended frequency band from 8-18... 

A wideband integrated delay chain chip with 5-bit main delay control, two error correction bits, maximum delay of 125-and 3.9-ps delay resolution, designed and fabricated in a 0.18-μ m CMOS technology is presented. This delay chain is a cascade of seven passive internal-switched delay blocks which the five main bits are based on novel delay structures. The proposed delay structures are similar to second-, fourth-, and sixth-order all-pass networks and are robust to mismatch effects of resistive parasitics of transistor switches. Measurement results of the fabricated delay chain show 15.2-23.3-dB insertion loss and less than 3.3-ps rms delay error over the intended frequency band from 8-18... 

In Mixed-Criticality (MC) systems, there are often multiple Worst-Case Execution Times (WCETs) for the same task, corresponding to system operation mode. Determining the appropriate WCETs for lower criticality modes is non-trivial; while on the one hand, a low WCET for a mode can improve the processor utilization in that mode, on the other hand, using a larger WCET ensures that the mode switches are minimized, thereby maximizing the quality-of-service for all tasks, albeit at the cost of processor utilization. Although there are many studies to determine WCET in the highest criticality mode, no analytical solutions are proposed to determine WCETs in other lower criticality modes. In this... 

This study examined MQWs made of InGaAs/GaAs, InAlAs/InP, and InGaAs/InP in terms of their band structure and reflectivity. We also demonstrated that the reflectivity of MQWs under normal incident was at maximum, while both using a strong pump and changing incident angle reduced it. Reflectivity of the structure for a weak probe pulse depends on polarization, intensity of the pump pulse, and delay between the probe pulse and the pump pulse. So this system can be used as an ultrafast all-optical switch which is inspected by the transfer matrix method. After studying the band structure of the one-dimensional photonic crystal, the optical stark effect (OSE) was considered on it. Due to the OSE... 

The conventional time-modulated arrays (TMAs) have a low radiation efficiency, since each antenna turns off at specific time slots. In this paper, first, the efficiency of TMA is investigated analytically. Next, the optimized switching sequences are proposed to enhance the radiation efficiency of a specific sideband, while preserving the level of the other sidebands. The practical hardware limitations are considered in the switching sequence design. Moreover, a low-cost flexible eight-element printed dipole array operating at 1.2-1.4 GHz is implemented to verify the proposed algorithms. The measured radiation patterns indicate that by applying the proposed sequences, the TMA efficiency... 

In this paper, a fast and practical method is proposed for open-circuit (OC) fault diagnosis (FD) in a three-phase quasi-Z-source inverter (q-ZSI). Compared to the existing fast OC FD techniques in three-phase voltage-source inverters (VSIs), this method is more cost-effective since no ultra-fast processor or high-speed measurement is required. Additionally, the method is independent of the load condition. The proposed method is only applicable to Z-source family inverters and is based on observing the effect of shoot-through (SH) intervals on the system variables during switching periods. The proposed algorithm includes two consecutive stages: OC detection and fault location identification.... 

In this paper, a fast and practical method is proposed for open-circuit (OC) fault diagnosis (FD) in a three-phase quasi-Z-source inverter (q-ZSI). Compared with the existing fast OC FD techniques in three-phase voltage source inverters, this method is more cost-effective since no ultrafast processor or high-speed measurement is required. Additionally, the method is independent of the load condition. The proposed method is only applicable to Z-source family inverters and is based on observing the effect of shoot-through intervals on the system variables during switching periods. The proposed algorithm includes two consecutive stages: OC detection and fault location identification. When both... 

In order to deal with the limitations of micro-pumps and micro-valves and meet the advantages of magnetic systems a novel plan is described here. The idea behind the plan is that magnetic particles, mixed and dispersed in a carrier liquid, can be accumulated and retained at specific sites to form pistons in a micro-tube using some external magnetic field sources along the tube. In other words, using some solenoids and switching them on and off, in a specific order and period, causes the desired external magnetic field variation through the tube. Changing the period and the mode of activation and deactivation of the solenoids, which are called switching time and switching mode, respectively,... 

Fluid control, namely pumping and valving, is a critical factor in the performance of micro-fluidic systems. In recent years a variety of micro-fluidic systems are developed for the purpose of miniaturizing fluid handling, and chemical analysis to develop Lab On a Chip (LOC) technology. The mentioned facts resulted in design and fabrication of a novel hydromagnetic flow controller. The idea behind this device is that magnetic particles, mixed and dispersed in a carrier liquid, can be accumulated in the form of a piston. Depending upon dragging speed of these pistons, which itself is a function of switching time, this device can be used to either increase (pumping) or decrease (valving) the... 

Microrings can have different hysteresis characteristics at their different resonance frequencies. They can be used as a multi-hysteresis optical component. In this paper an optical D-flip-flop circuit composed of a single nonlinear passive microring coupled to two straight waveguide based on the Kerr effect is proposed. The proposed circuit can operate as an optical digital circuit which synchronizes input DATA with the CLOCK of the circuit. A simple analytical model for hysteresis design and the transient analysis of the proposed D-flip-flop are presented. According to our model, the switching time of the flip-flop is in the order of 10 ps. Crown Copyright © 2008  

An increasing trend for reducing cost, space, and weight leads to modern embedded systems that execute multiple tasks with different criticality levels on a common hardware platform while guaranteeing a safe operation. In such mixed-criticality (MC) systems, multiple worst case execution times (WCETs) are defined for each task, corresponding to the system operation mode to improve the MC system's timing behavior at runtime. Determining the appropriate WCETs for lower criticality (LC) modes is nontrivial. On the one hand, considering a very low WCET for tasks can improve the processor utilization by scheduling more tasks in that mode, on the other hand, using a larger WCET ensures that the...