Sharif Digital Repository

A novel ultrasensitive modified electrode was fabricated with a graphene nanosheets and carbon nanospheres (GNS-CNS)-based nanocomposite film as a powerful platform. Pt nanoparticles (PtNPs) were simply electrodeposited onto the GNS-CNS-coated glassy carbon electrode creating a PtNPs/GNS-CNS hybrid nanocomposite modified electrode. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) techniques were used for the characterization of the prepared modified electrode. The results of investigation of electrochemical response characteristics of cefepime (CP) revealed a considerable improvement in the oxidation peak current of CP on PtNPs/GNS-CNS/GCE... 

Operation of two different optical fiber sensor designs for distance measurements with a good sensitivity, resolution, and wide dynamic range is reported. Design is based on the intensity modulation due to reflectance measurement from a target surface. Two reported designs are fabricated with a triple-fiber assembly, in which one uses a double-transmitter, while another one uses a double-receiver fiber design. Reflection signals from different targets are tested with these sensors and results for the mirror and A4 paper surfaces are described. The response curve for both experiments starts from a near zero level, shows a maximum at a certain distance and gradually drops to the background... 

This paper presents a general method for real-time adaptation of wireless receivers according to the prevailing reception conditions. In order to maintain the desired signal quality at the minimum possible power dissipation, the method performs an optimal trade-off between noise, linearity, and power consumption in the building blocks of the receiver. This is achieved by continuously monitoring the signal-to-noise plus interference ratio (SNIR) and accordingly tuning the adaptation parameters embedded in the receiver design. A prototype DVB-H receiver chip, implemented in a standard 0.18-μ m CMOS process, is used as the test vehicle. By properly trading noise with linearity in the receiver,... 

One of the most important obstacles in passive radar applications is removing the direct signal from the target channel. Otherwise, week echoes from the targets in the target channel would be ignored due to the limited dynamic range of the system. One of the most effective techniques in this field is using adaptive filters. In this paper various adaptive filters are introduced and their performances are shown and compared  

A modified carbon paste electrode was prepared by incorporating the TiO2 nanoparticles in the carbon paste matrix. The electrochemical behavior of gallic acid (GA) is investigated on the surface of the electrode using cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry. The surface morphology of the prepared electrode was characterized using the scanning electron microscopy. The results indicate that the electrochemical response of GA is improved significantly at the modified electrode compared with the unmodified electrode. Furthermore, the capabilities of electron transfer on these two electrodes were also investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Under the optimized... 

A technique that expands dynamic range (DR) of frequency down-converters in the C band frequency is presented. Primary characteristics of down-converter are evaluated to confirm that it can be used in microwave receivers. The C band down-converter is carried out by the combination of RF mixers, band pass interdigital filter, and X band combline filter which are designed entirely for this project. Attainment of the perfect receiver is the final purpose of this paper, and a method that causes 72 dB dynamic range, high tangential signal sensitivity and fine gain flatness is used for achieving the mentioned purpose. These efforts improve the dynamic range about 19 dB and gain flatness about 3.07... 

A mixture of multi-walled carbon nanotube/graphite paste electrode modified with a salophen complex of cobalt was prepared and was applied for the study of the electrochemical behavior of 6-mercaptopurine (MP) using cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). An excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of MP was achieved, which led to a considerable lowering in the anodic overpotential and remarkable increase in the response sensitivity in comparison with unmodified electrode. Utilizing DPV method, a linear dynamic range of 1-100 μM with detection limit of 0.1 μM was obtained in phosphate buffer of pH 3.0. The electrochemical detection system was very stable, and the... 

A modified glassy carbon electrode, prepared by potentiostatic electrodeposition of platinum-ruthenium nanoparticles (Pt-RuNPs) onto a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) layer, offers dramatic improvements in the stability and sensitivity of voltammetric responses toward methyldopa (m-dopa) compared to glassy carbon electrodes individually coated with MWCNT or Pt-RuNPs. The surface morphology and nature of the hybrid film (Pt-RuNPs/MWCNT) deposited on glassy carbon electrodes was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. A remarkable enhancement in the microscopic area of the electrode together... 

A promising electrochemical sensor was developed based on a layer by layer process by electro-polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of new coccine (NC) as dopant anion on the surface of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) pre-coated glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The modified electrode was used as a new and sensitive electrochemical sensor for voltammetric determination of sumatriptan (SUM). The electrochemical behavior of SUM was investigated on the surface of the modified electrode using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The results showed a remarkable increase (∼12 times) in the anodic peak current of SUM in comparison to the bare GCE. The effect of experimental variables such... 

The problem of estimating pulse repetition interval (PRI) of an interleaved pulse train which consist of several independent radar signals, is the main issue of signal processing in electronic support systems. PRI Transform algorithm is one of the well known and effective methods of PRI detection which is capable of detecting several close jittered signals and surpassing subharmonics, but have some drawbacks especially because of small PRI dynamic range and heavy computations. In this paper a modified PRI transform is introduced which manage wide range of PRIs simultaneously, and speed up the algorithm by significantly reducing the computations. Moreover an efficient threshold is set for... 

Next generation wideband and ultra-wideband radar antenna arrays need efficient true-time delay networks for array control. Optical beam-forming networks have been considered as a promising solution in such arrays. Performance analysis of optical beam-formers is thus quiet necessary. In this paper signal to noise ratio and dynamic range of simple optical beam-forming structures are investigated with a custom microwave CAD tool. Two structures with optical and RF power combining methods are discussed. With the proposed devices' parameters, the optical combining method shows better performance for low and moderate optical powers  

Next generation wideband and ultra-wideband radar antenna arrays need efficient true-time delay networks for array control. Following the great interest for optical control of antenna array beam steering, performance analysis of optical beam-formers is a must. In this paper signal to noise ratio and dynamic range of simple optical beamforming structures with components off the shelf are investigated theoretically. Especially the effects of certain power combining components such as arrayed wave guide gratings, broadband passive optical combiners and microwave combiners inspected. It turns up that an efficient microwave combiner would surpass the optical combiners in both SNR and dynamic... 

This paper reports transistor-level design of a new continuous-time (CT), discrete-time (DT) cascaded sigma delta modulator (SDM). The combination of a CT first stage and a DT second stage was utilized to realize a high speed, high resolution analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Power consumption of CT first stage is lowered by optimizing the gain coefficients of CT integrators in a feedforward topology. Moreover double sampling (CDS) was used in second stage integrators to further reduce power consumption. Proposed new SDM is simulated in 0.18μm CMOS technology and achieves 84dB dynamic range for a 10MHz signal bandwidth. Total analog power dissipation measured was 44mW  

A new sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor was developed for determination of naltrexone (NAL) in pharmaceutical dosage form and human plasma. Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist which is commonly used for the treatment of narcotic addiction and alcohol dependence. A voltammetric study of naltrexone has been carried out at the surface of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with Nafion-doped carbon nanoparticles (CNPs). The electrochemical oxidation of naltrexone was investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetric techniques. The dependence of peak currents and potentials on pH, concentration and the potential scan rate was investigated. The electrode characterization... 

In this paper, we have proposed, designed, implemented, and characterized a low-cost camera-based microarray scanner which is capable of imaging fluorescently-labeled DNA or Protein microarrays. The proposed system is designed to simultaneously measure two different fluorescent dyes using two parallel channels which increase the overall scan speed. We have shown that the wide dynamic range of system makes it able to detect fluorophore densities from 100-106 molecule/μm2. In each capture, a 5.6 mm × 3.7 mm field is imaged on a 22.3 mm × 14.9 mm (18 megapixels) CMOS sensor. Therefore, the microarray can be scanned with ∼ 1μm2 spatial resolution which is high enough to distinguish borders of... 

The most challenging issue of conventional Time Amplifiers (TAs) is their limited Dynamic Range (DR). This paper presents a mathematical analysis to clarify principle of operation of conventional 2× TA's. The mathematical derivations release strength reduction of the current sources of the TA is the simplest way to increase DR. Besides, a new technique is presented to expand the Dynamic Range (DR) of conventional 2× TAs. Proposed technique employs current subtraction in place of changing strength of current sources using conventional gain compensation methods, which results in more stable gain over a wider DR. The TA is simulated using Spectre-rf in TSMC 0.18um COMS technology. DR of the 2×... 

Superhydrophobic materials have attracted many attentions in recent years while their application in sample preparation remained almost intact. In this project, a rough surface of melamine formaldehyde foam was silanized by chemical deposition of trichloromethylsilane to form a highly porous and superhydrophobic material, presumably a suitable medium for extracting non–polar compounds such as benzene and its methyl derivatives. The prepared sorbent was packed in a needle for the headspace needle–trap microextraction of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX). Major parameters associated with the extraction/desorption processes were considered for optimization. Under the optimized... 

A thin film microextraction method using elecrospun magnetic polybutylene terephthalate nanofibers is developed and implemented to isolate some selected triazines. Due to the high mechanical stability of these nanofibers, they are repeatedly used under harsh magnetic stirring and ultrasonic conditions without any damage and structure degradation. The presence of magnetic nanoparticles within the nanofiber structure increases the extraction efficiency while the fibers could be collected by an external magnet. The synthesized nanocomposite showed strong affinity toward the selected analytes. Apart from the concentration of magnetic nanoparticles within the nanocomposite network, the effect of...