Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “integrated circuits”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 595 records · Page 33
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Inclusion of Biological Targets in the Analysis of Electrical Characteristics of Non-Thermal Plasma Discharge

In Plasma Medicine studies, the effect of non-thermal plasma (NTP) on biological targets is typically correlated with the amount of stable reactive oxygen and nitrogen species produced in a liquid medium. The effect of NTP and the response of the biological target on cellular redox mechanisms is overlooked in these investigations. Additionally, the influence of electrical properties of cells on the physical properties of NTP is neglected. Therefore, we used a floating electrode dielectric barrier discharge plasma to explore the impact of cell structure, size, and viability of the biological target on the physical properties of NTP. Lissajous figures were used to determine circuit capacitance and energy per cycle during NTP exposure of different cell suspensions. We show that both, structural integrity and active enzymic processes of cells change the electrical properties of NTP. Correlations were also drawn between NTP-produced hydrogen peroxide and nitrite with measured capacitance. Our studies indicate that the observed changes between different cell suspensions may be due to a feedback loop between the biological target and the NTP source. In future studies, a more detailed analysis is needed to improve the control of clinical NTP devices.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Aerosol-Jet Printed Transferable Millimeter-Wave Circuits

Printed millimeter wave (mmW) electronics have been of high interest in the field of communications for some time now due to the potential ability to fabricate mmW systems that utilize 3-Dimension Heterogeneous Integration (3DHI) to improve performance beyond traditional systems. Here, in this paper, a method for fabricating transferable mmW structures via aerosol-jet printing (AJP) is presented. A PDMS stamp assisted liftoff procedure is developed to separate the printed part from a rigid printing support surface and apply it to an adhesive target surface. Several microstrip (MS) line structures are demonstrated to characterize the effect of stamp transfer on the RF performance of the printed circuits. The effects of printed vias on RF probe pads and shifts in the resonant frequencies of a Beatty standard line after transfer are considered and characterized using S-parameter measurements.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Repairable and Reconfigurable Structured Liquid Circuits

The advance of printed electronics is significantly bolstered by the development of liquid-state electronics that overcome the inherent limitations in flexibility and reconfigurability of solid-state electronics. By integrating the biocompatibility and conductivity of sulfonated polyaniline (S-PANI) and phytic acid (PA) with the reconfigurability of structured liquids, highly conductive all-liquid threads are developed. The dense packing and overlap of PA/S-PANI complexes at an oil/water interface promotes in-plane electron transport, and standard four-point probe measurements of PA/S-PANI interfacial assemblies demonstrate enhanced electrical properties. Notably, the rapid jetting of the ink phase into the matrix phase allows for liquid threads to be printed, enabling the fabrication of large-scale, conductive pathways between two electrodes and liquid circuits. Upon mechanical cleavage of the liquid wires, circuits can be broken, but will easily self-repair using an electric field, making this motif useful in the design of switches as well as restoring conductive pathways in series or in parallel. In conclusion, the demonstrated flexibility and reconfigurability these PA/S-PANI wires possess hold significant promise for their practical use in the design of flexible and adaptive bioelectronics that can be repaired on demand, signifying a transformative step in the evolution of liquid electronic materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

LENS: Learning Enabled Network Synthesis

RTRC and UMD have developed novel machine learning based methods under the ARPA-E DIFFERENTIATE program for rapid acceleration of hypothesis generation in complex architecture design spaces involving both discrete choices of component inclusion and interconnection and continuous parametric decisions. The project named Learning Enabled Network Synthesis (LENS) further demonstrated the developed methods on challenging electrical power converter design problems by identifying the most suitable circuit topologies and simultaneously selecting the most appropriate components to achieve optimized design of power converter with improved performances. We demonstrated that LENS could enable exploration of very large design space of circuit topologies and components by addressing the limitations of conventional design process in non-linear, high switching speed, multi-dimensional power converter design and optimization. The key innovation developed in LENS is the seamless integration of statistical learning and logical reasoning techniques and building on the individual strengths of these techniques for rapid hypothesis discovery. The main component of LENS comprises of: 1) Graph Reasoning Engine (GRE) to enforce composition rules that rapidly reject all discrete architectures that are composed incorrectly and generates an adaptive database of feasible designs which can be used by ML modules, 2) Graph Generative Learning module which is a deep neural network based generative model for graph architectures which can enable design space exploration beyond the dataset generated by the GRE, 3) Graph Reduced Order Model (ROM) for graph domains for accelerating computation of output metrics, and 4) Active learning and Rule Discovery module for sample efficient learning and extracting logical rules from the learned ML models which will be integrated in the GRE to enhance the filtering effectiveness. LENS approach can be applied to any design domains where designs can be represented as multi-attribute graphs. The LENS team integrated the various technical innovations listed above into an optimization pipeline and exercised the optimization pipeline on the converter design problem. The LENS project demonstrated that the developed AI/ML technologies can be used to generate novel converter circuits >45x faster than experts on chosen use-cases. This can enable faster design space exploration and identification of new designs which are not considered by experts due to the increasing design space complexity. This has significant potential impact on the public and energy needs of the country. It is currently estimated that 30% of all electrical powers generated passes through power converters. The future estimate is that 80% of all power generated would be passing through converters. LENS fills a critical gap in this space since by accelerating the design process the designers would be able to generate more efficient converters which can lead to significant energy savings for the country.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

High-Speed Active Integrators for Magnetic Probes

This report discusses a low cost, easy to develop instrument to measure magnetic fields in pulsed solenoids used for the MagNIF pulse power system. The instrument is designed to integrate voltage signals from custom B-dot probes made from PCB inductor chips. The instrument is battery powered with ± 9V rails. Acceptable B-dot probe inputs range from mV to 20V with frequencies up to 4MHz. Details of the circuit design and practical considerations for working with high speed signals are discussed.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sudden-Discharge Cycling Characteristics and Millisecond Dynamic Behaviors of a HTS Stainless-Steel Insulated Double-Pancake Coil With Thin Copper Plates

We have tested an intermediate-sized HTS stainless-steel (co-wound) insulated double pancake coil (~132 turns per coil) and discovered dynamic effects during sudden discharge on both millisecond and second scales. For soft break, the power supply is turned off suddenly but the shunt resistor (164 milliohm) is still connected; for hard break, a high voltage contactor is used to suddenly open the circuit so that the leads are completely open. Hard break is dangerous to traditionally insulated LTS magnets, but the SS-insulated HTS DPC retained integrity over ¡80 charge-discharge cycles. Voltage decay curves for soft and hard breaks are studied on short and long timescales. On long timescales, we observe the expected exponential decay and measure the time constant to calculate contact resistance. On short timescales, we observe highly dynamic effects: a hyper-exponential decay suggesting that the inductance or contact resistance is suddenly changing with time, likely an indication of the RL circuit forming. Moreover, peak voltage immediately (ms) after the sudden discharge were collected and compared. It is found that the peak voltage in soft-discharge is proportional to the applied current, while the those in hard-break has a unique pattern and tends to stay flat even though the applied current increases.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Tunnel junction-enabled monolithically integrated GaN micro-light emitting transistor

GaN/InGaN microLEDs are a very promising technology for next-generation displays. Switching control transistors and their integration are key components in achieving high-performance, efficient displays. Monolithic integration of microLEDs with GaN switching devices provides an opportunity to control microLED output power with capacitive (voltage)-controlled rather than current-controlled schemes. This approach can greatly reduce system complexity for the driver circuit arrays while maintaining device opto-electronic performance. In this work, we demonstrate a 3-terminal GaN micro-light emitting transistor that combines a GaN/InGaN blue tunneling-based microLED with a GaN n-channel FET. Further, the integrated device exhibits excellent gate control, drain current control, and optical emission control. This work provides a promising pathway for future monolithic integration of GaN FETs with microLED to enable fast switching, high-efficiency microLED display and communication systems.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantum subspace expansion in the presence of hardware noise

Finding ground state energies on current quantum processing units (QPUs) using algorithms such as the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) continues to pose challenges. Hardware noise severely affects both the expressivity and trainability of parameterized quantum circuits, limiting them to shallow depths in practice. Here, we demonstrate that both issues can be addressed by synergistically integrating VQE with a quantum subspace expansion, allowing for an optimal balance between quantum and classical computing capabilities and costs. We perform a systematic benchmark analysis of the iterative quantum-assisted eigensolver in the presence of hardware noise. We determine ground state energies of 1D and 2D mixed-field Ising spin models on noisy simulators and the IBM QPUs ibmq_quito (5 qubits) and ibmq_guadalupe (16 qubits). To maximize accuracy, we propose a suitable criterion to select the subspace basis vectors according to the trace of the noisy overlap matrix. Finally, we show how to systematically approach the exact solution by performing controlled quantum error mitigation based on probabilistic error reduction on the noisy backend fake_guadalupe.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Low power implementation of high frequency SiPM readout for Cherenkov and scintillation detectors in TOF-PET

State-of-the-art (SoA) electronic readout for silicon photomultiplier (SiPM)-based scintillation detectors that demonstrate experimental limits in achievable coincidence time resolution (CTR) leverage low noise, high frequency signal processing to facilitate a single photon time response that is near the limit of the SiPMs architecture. This readout strategy can optimally exploit fast luminescence and prompt photon populations, and promising measurements show detector concepts employing this readout can greatly advance PET detector CTR, relative to SoA in clinical systems. However, the technique employs power hungry components which make the electronics chain impractical for channel-dense time-of-flight (TOF)-PET detectors. We have developed and tested a low noise and high frequency readout circuit which is performant at low power and consists of discrete elements with small footprints, making it feasible for integration into TOF-PET detector prototypes. A 3 × 3 mm 2 Broadcom SiPM with this readout chain exhibited sub-100 ps single photon time resolution at 10 mW of power consumption, with a relatively minor performance degradation to 120 ± 2 ps FWHM at 5 mW. CTR measurements with 3 × 3 × 20 mm 3 LYSO and fast LGSO scintillators demonstrated 127 ± 3 ps and 113 ± 2 ps FWHM at optimal power operation and 133 ± 2 ps and 121 ± 3 ps CTR at 5 mW. BGO crystals 3 × 3 × 20 mm 3 in size show 271 ± 5 ps FWHM CTR (1174 ± 14 ps full-width-at-tenth-maximum (FWTM)) at optimal power dissipation and 289 ± 8 ps (1296 ± 33 ps FWTM) at 5 mW. The compact and low power readout topology that achieves this performance thereby offers a platform to greatly advance PET system CTR and also opportunities to provide high performance TOF-PET at reduced material cost.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Half-Bridge On-State Voltage Sensor for In-Situ Measurements

Current prognostics for life expectancy of power semiconductors utilize off-line measurements of the on-state resistance. Presented is a half-bridge (HB) on-state voltage (VON) sensor capable of being utilized for in-situ measurements enabling continuous and real-time monitoring of the on-state resistance. The design provides a single VON measurement output that contains independent VON information of both high and low side devices in a HB leg. The measurement output is referenced from the middle point of the HB and combines the two complementary VON sensing outputs. This system reduces the number of components, required number of analog signal processing circuits, and ADC channels for in-situ health monitoring of a power electronics system. These reductions will facilitate integration of the VON sensor with the gate driver board and achieve low system profile. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed VON measurements while switching with inductive and resistive loads.

Roy, Chondon↗
DOE OSTI2026

Magnetic Measurements of Fermilab Rapid-Cycling Booster Gradient Magnets

Fermilab is upgrading its Booster synchrotron to increase ramp rate and intensity. This is part of the Proton Improvement Plan (PIP-II) that will allow the Main Injector to achieve proton beam power of 1.2 MW within the next few years. This upgrade includes running the 55-year-old Booster magnets at 20 Hz instead of the usual 15 Hz, and construction of some shorter and wider aperture versions of these combined-function gradient magnets. Magnetic measurements were performed to characterize the present 15 Hz AC performance, and then again with 20 Hz ramp cycle to ensure performance and compatibility in this new operating regime. A 3 m-long curved flat-coil was developed for these measurements using Printed Circuit Board (PCB) technology. The probe also has a separate 0.5 m-long body-field probe, allowing integral, body, and end fields to be measured across 100 mm of the magnet aperture. The sampling rate for these measurements during the AC cycle was 200 kHz, and field resolution was better than 0.01%. Details of the probe, measurements, and results are presented.

DiMarco, J. [Fermilab] (ORCID:0000000228400036)↗
DOE OSTI2021

Superconducting neural networks with disordered Josephson junction array synaptic networks and leaky integrate-and-fire loop neurons

Fully coupled randomly disordered recurrent superconducting networks with additional open-ended channels for inputs and outputs are considered the basis to introduce a new architecture to neuromorphic computing in this work. Various building blocks of such a network are designed around disordered array synaptic networks using superconducting devices and circuits as an example, while emphasizing that a similar architectural approach may be compatible with several other materials and devices. A multiply coupled (interconnected) disordered array of superconducting loops containing Josephson junctions [equivalent to superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs)] forms the aforementioned collective synaptic network that forms a fully recurrent network together with compatible neuron-like elements and feedback loops, enabling unsupervised learning. This approach aims to take advantage of superior power efficiency, propagation speed, and synchronizability of a small world or a random network over an ordered/regular network. Additionally, it offers a significant factor of increase in scalability. Here, a compatible leaky integrate-and-fire neuron made of superconducting loops with Josephson junctions is presented, along with circuit components for feedback loops as needed to complete the recurrent network. Several of these individual disordered array neural networks can further be coupled together in a similarly disordered way to form a hierarchical architecture of recurrent neural networks that is often suggested as similar to a biological brain.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantum computation of frequency-domain molecular response properties using a three-qubit iToffoli gate

The quantum computation of molecular response properties on near-term quantum hardware is a topic of substantial interest. Computing these properties directly in the frequency domain is desirable, but the circuits require large depth if the typical hardware gate set consisting of single- and two-qubit gates is used. While high-fidelity multipartite gates have been reported recently, their integration into quantum simulation and the demonstration of improved accuracy of the observable properties remains to be shown. Here, we report the application of a high-fidelity multipartite gate, the iToffoli gate, to the computation of frequency-domain response properties of diatomic molecules. The iToffoli gate enables a ~50% reduction in circuit depth and ~40% reduction in circuit execution time compared to the traditional gate set. We show that the molecular properties obtained with the iToffoli gate exhibit comparable or better agreement with theory than those obtained with the native CZ gates. Our work is among the first demonstrations of the practical usage of a native multi-qubit gate in quantum simulation, with diverse potential applications to near-term quantum computation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Energy efficient photonic memory based on electrically programmable embedded III-V/Si memristors: switches and filters

Abstract Over the past few years, extensive work on optical neural networks has been investigated in hopes of achieving orders of magnitude improvement in energy efficiency and compute density via all-optical matrix-vector multiplication. However, these solutions are limited by a lack of high-speed power power-efficient phase tuners, on-chip non-volatile memory, and a proper material platform that can heterogeneously integrate all the necessary components needed onto a single chip. We address these issues by demonstrating embedded multi-layer HfO 2 /Al 2 O 3 memristors with III-V/Si photonics which facilitate non-volatile optical functionality for a variety of devices such as Mach-Zehnder Interferometers, and (de-)interleaver filters. The Mach-Zehnder optical memristor exhibits non-volatile optical phase shifts > π with ~33 dB signal extinction while consuming 0 electrical power consumption. We demonstrate 6 non-volatile states each capable of 4 Gbps modulation. (De-) interleaver filters were demonstrated to exhibit memristive non-volatile passband transformation with full set/reset states. Time duration tests were performed on all devices and indicated non-volatility up to 24 hours and beyond. We demonstrate non-volatile III-V/Si optical memristors with large electric-field driven phase shifts and reconfigurable filters with true 0 static power consumption. As a result, co-integrated photonic memristors offer a pathway for in-memory optical computing and large-scale non-volatile photonic circuits.

Cheung, Stanley (ORCID:0000000248860013)↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Prototype High-Voltage Pulsed Power Supply for Control of the ITER Shattered Pellet Injection System Flyer Plate Valve

A high-voltage pulsed power supply (HVPPS) has been designed, prototyped, and tested for driving an eddy current actuated propellant valve for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) disruption mitigation system. The high-voltage (HV) dc supply output voltage is software programmable, and the energy storage capacitor bank can be readily reconfigured as 200, 400, 600, and 800 μ F, enabling testing and optimization of both the valve drive and valve systems. Multiple system parameters are monitored before, during, and after each firing of the valve. The system parameters are both displayed and stored for further analysis. Control of the setup, firing sequence, and data collection is automated using a LabVIEW-based control program. The programmability and reconfigurability of this system collectively provide a flexible and robust platform for system refinement and optimization. In this article, a summary of the system will be provided including operational sequences, HV switching and associated triggering methods and circuits, and results measured while firing a solid frozen pellet. Additionally, planned refinement activities toward meeting all requirements for ITER integration will be discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Impacts to FeRAM design arising from interfacial dielectric layers and wake up modulation in ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide

As ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) becomes more widely utilized in ferroelectric microelectronics, integration impacts of intentional and non-intentional dielectric interfaces and their effects upon the ferroelectric film wake up and circuit parameters become important to understand. In this work, the effect of the addition of a linear dielectric aluminum oxide, Al 2 O 3 , below a ferroelectric Hf 0.58 Zr 0.42 O 2 film in a capacitor structure for FeRAM applications with NbN electrodes was measured. Depolarization fields resulting from the linear dielectric is observed to induce a reduction of the remanent polarization of the ferroelectric. Addition of the aluminum oxide also impacts the wake up of the HZO with respect to the cycling voltage applied. Intricately linked to the design of a FeRAM 1C/1T cell, the metal-ferroelectric-insulator-metal (MFIM) devices are observed to significantly shift charge related to the read states based on aluminum oxide thickness and wake up cycling voltage. As a result, a 33% reduction in the separation of read states is measured, which complicates how a memory cell is designed and illustrates the importance of clean interfaces in devices.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Damage of prismatic lithium‐ion cells subject to bending: Test, model, and detection

Abstract The mechanically induced internal short circuit (ISC) is one of the major safety concerns of lithium‐ion batteries. Mechanical abuse tests are often performed to evaluate the integrity and safety of lithium‐ion batteries under mechanical loadings. Except for the widely explored compression‐dominated indentation tests, bending is another typical real‐world loading condition that is tension‐dominated. To investigate the mechanical damage and ISC behavior of batteries under bending, we carried out controlled three‐point bending tests in four progressive steps on prismatic battery cells with maximum deflections ranging from 38% to 76% of the cell thickness. None of the tested cells experienced an ISC. We then conducted 3D X‐ray computed tomography (CT) scanning on the bent cells after unloading. X‐ray CT images showed three out of the four tested cells have extensive cracking in the electrode layers at the bottom side (opposite to the loading head). This indicates that cracking does not necessarily lead to an ISC under bending. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was also measured on the bent cells and substantial changes were observed. Both the bulk resistance and charge‐transfer resistance increased significantly after bending, which could influence the battery performance and lifespan. We then developed a detailed finite (FE) element model to further investigate the mechanical deformation and failure mechanisms. The FE model successfully predicts the load–displacement response and reproduces the deformation patterns. The findings and the FE model developed in the present study provide useful insights and tools for the battery structure and crash safety design. image

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

3-D Printed Electro-Magnetic Objects for THz Communications

Advanced materials and manufacturing techniques will pave the path towards high quality electro-magnetic circuits that operate up through THz and into optics regime. Digital additive manufacturing (AM) techniques offer game-changing potential for large scale manufacturing of Radio-frequency (RF) circuits and system in custom 2D/3D geometries. The technical collaboration will explore the design flexibility and product customization capabilities of additive manufacturing techniques to process magnetic materials in custom 3D geometries with tailored dielectric properties and frequency response characteristics. Transformation of an RF circuit design idea into a 3D printed system using additive manufacturing techniques will bring together the elements of advanced materials, additive integration, and low-cost manufacturing for future advanced wireless communication systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗