Search Results (15)

Articulated arm coordinate measuring machines are designed for in situ use directly in manufacturing environments, enabling efficient dimensional control outside of climate-controlled laboratories. This study investigates the influence of ambient temperature variation on the accuracy of length measurements performed with the Hexagon Absolute Arm 8312. The experiment was carried out in a laboratory setting simulating typical shop floor conditions through controlled temperature changes in the range of approximately 20–31 °C. A calibrated steel gauge block was used as a reference standard, allowing separation of the influence of the measuring system from that of the measured object. The results showed that the gauge block length changed in line with the expected thermal expansion, while the articulated arm coordinate measuring machine exhibited only a minor residual thermal drift and stable performance. The experiment also revealed a constant measurement offset of approximately 22 µm, likely due to calibration deviation. As part of the study, an uncertainty budget was developed, taking into account all relevant sources of influence and enabling a more realistic estimation of accuracy under operational conditions. The study confirms that modern carbon composite articulated arm coordinate measuring machines with integrated compensation can maintain stable measurement behavior even under fluctuating temperatures in controlled environments. Full article

Achieving a stable color output across wide temperature ranges in automotive LED applications is challenging, especially when using cost-sensitive chips with limited computational resources. This study proposes an improved temperature model that integrates Fourier heat conduction and thermal resistance concepts to more accurately capture self-heating and power dissipation effects. To accommodate the constraints of low-cost automotive-grade microcontrollers (MCUs), the associated optical algorithm is converted from floating-point to a 16.16 fixed-point format, reducing both memory usage and computational overhead. Experimental results conducted from −40 °C to 120 °C show that the improved model predicts LED temperatures within 5 °C of measured values, reducing errors by up to 30% compared to conventional PN-junction-based methods. Furthermore, by comparing the chromaticity points generated under the new and traditional models—and implementing an additional three-duty-cycle offset at 1% brightness—the improved approach reduces chromaticity drift by approximately 0.0052 in the CIE 1931 xy color space. These findings confirm the superior stability and accuracy of the new model for both thermal management and chromaticity compensation, offering a cost-effective solution for automotive LED systems requiring precise color control under constrained MCU resources. Full article

Using chaos for communication can provide more robust channel security, covert transmission, and inherent support for spread-spectrum modulation. Although numerous studies have explored this technology, its practical deployment remains limited due to substantial hardware demands, complex signal processing, and a lack of efficient modulation methods for chaotic signals. In this study, a novel chaotic digital communication system is proposed and studied. A prototype of a frequency-modulated antipodal chaos shift keying (FM-ACSK) system is implemented on an Intel Cyclone V field-programmable gate array (FPGA) along with a complete mathematical model using Matlab R2022a Simulink software. Using FPGAs to implement chaotic oscillators avoids analog system problems such as component drift and high thermal instability while providing determined system parameters, rapid prototyping, and high throughput. The employment of FM over a chaotic modulation layer provides a passband operation (currently at an intermediate frequency of 10.7 MHz) while adding the benefits of carrier frequency offset robustness and constant signal envelope. Within this study, the robustness of FM-ACSK to white noise in the channel was evaluated using bit error rate, which was tested through hardware experiments and simulations. The results show the feasibility and potential performance limitations of this approach to chaotic communication system design. Full article

This work presents a potentiometric readout circuit for a pH-sensing system in an oral healthcare device. For in vivo applications, noise, area, and power consumption of the readout electronics play critical roles. While CMOS amplifiers are commonly used in readout circuits for these applications, their applicability is limited due to non-deterministic noises such as flicker and thermal noise. To address these challenges, the Correlated Double Sampler (CDS) topology is widely employed as a sampled-data circuit for potentiometric readout, effectively eliminating DC offset and drift, thereby reducing overall noise. Therefore, this work introduces a novel potentiometric readout circuit realized with CDS and a switched-capacitor-based low-pass filter (SC-LPF) to enhance the noise characteristic of overall circuit. The proposed readout circuit is implemented in an integrated circuit using 0.18 µm CMOS process, which occupies an area of 990 µm × 216 µm. To validate the circuit performances, simulations were conducted with a 5 pF load and a 1 MHz input clock. The readout circuit operates with a supply voltage range ±1.65 V and linearly reproduces the pH sensor output of ±1.5 V. Noise measured with a 1 MHz sampling clock shows 0.683 µ$V_{rms}$, with a power consumption of 124.1 µW. Full article

The use of wide band gap (WBG) semiconductor switches in power converters is increasing day by day due to their superior chemical and physical properties, such as electrical field strength, drift speed, and thermal conductivity. These new-generation power switches offer advantages over traditional induction cooker systems, such as fast and environmentally friendly heating. The size of passive components can be reduced, and the decreasing inductance value of induction coils and capacitors with low ESR (equivalent series resistance) values contributes to total efficiency. Other design parameters, such as passive components with lower values, heatsinks with low volumes, cooling fans with low power, and induction coils with fewer turns, can offset the cost of WBG power devices. High-frequency operation can also be effective in heating non-ferromagnetic materials like aluminum and copper, making them suitable for heating these types of pans without complex induction coil and power converter designs. However, the use of these new generation power switches necessitates a re-examination of induction coil design. High switching frequency leads to a high resonance frequency in the power converter, which requires lower-value passive components compared to conventional cookers. The most important component is the induction coil, which requires fewer turns and magnetic cores. This study examines the induction heating equivalent circuit, discusses the general structure and design parameters of the induction coil, and performs FEM (finite element method) analyses using Ansys Maxwell. The results show that the induction coil inductance value in new-generation cookers decreases by 80% compared to traditional cookers, and the number of windings and magnetic cores decreases by 50%. These analyses, performed for high-power applications, are also performed for low-power applications. While the inductance value of the induction coil is 90 μH at low frequencies, it is reduced to the range of 5 μH to 20 μH at high frequencies. The number of windings is reduced by half or a quarter. The new-generation cooker system experimentally verifies the coil design based on the parameters derived from the analysis. Full article

To avoid resource waste and environmental pollution, a chain of ErO_x-boosted MnO_x-modified biochars derived from rice straw and sewage sludge (Er_yMn_1-y/BACs, where biochars derived from rice straw and sewage sludge were defined as BACs) were manufactured for formaldehyde (HCHO) elimination. The optimal 15%Er_0.5Mn_0.5/BAC achieved a 97.2% HCHO removal efficiency at 220 °C and exhibited favorable E_HCHO and thermal stability in a wide temperature window between 180 and 380 °C. The curbed influences of H₂O and SO₂ offset the boosting effect of O₂ in a certain range. Er–Mn bimetallic-modified BACs offered a superior HCHO removal performance compared with that of BACs boosted using Er or Mn separately, owing to the synergistic effect of ErO_x and MnO_x conducive to improving the samples’ total pore volume and surface area, surface active oxygen species, promoting redox ability, and inhibiting the crystallization of MnO_x. Moreover, the support’s hierarchical porous structure not only expedited the diffusion and mass transfer of reactants and their products but also elevated the approachability of adsorption and catalytic sites. Notably, these prominent features were partly responsible for the outstanding performance and excellent tolerance to H₂O and SO₂. Using in situ DRIFTS characterization analysis, it could be inferred that the removal process of HCHO was HCHO_ad → dioxymethylene (DOM) → formate species → CO₂ + H₂O, further enhanced with reactive oxygen species. The DFT calculation once again proved the removal process of HCHO and the strengthening effect of Er doping. Furthermore, the optimal catalytic performance of 15%Er_0.5Mn_0.5/BAC demonstrated its vast potential for practical applications. Full article

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instruments on board both the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) and the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) spacecraft provides calibrated reflectance, radiance, and brightness temperature products for weather and climate applications. It has 22 bands with resolutions of 375 and 750 m for imaging and moderate bands, respectively, on 4 focal planes covering a spectral range of 400–12,490 nm. The bands are stratified into reflective solar bands (RSBs), thermal emissive bands (TEBs), and the Day/Night Band (DNB). VIIRS has three on-board calibration sectors: the solar diffuser (SD), on-board calibrator blackbody (OBCBB), and space view (SV). The on-board calibrator targets are used to track on-orbit degradation and background offset drift. Extensive prelaunch radiometric testing of the RSB, TEB, and DNB detector’s radiometric sensitivity and noise was performed for both S-NPP and JPSS-1 VIIRS. The combination of prelaunch testing and on-orbit calibrators is used to produce calibrated sensor data record (SDR) reflectance, radiance, and brightness temperatures for use in environmental data record (EDR) products. This paper will discuss the prelaunch radiometric calibration activities for the RSBs only and includes the dynamic range, calibration coefficients, detector noise, and radiometric uncertainties for JPSS-1 VIIRS. Full article

An environmentally-friendly temperature sensor has been fabricated by using a low-cost water-processable nanocomposite material based on gelatin and graphene. The temperature dependence of the electrochemical properties has been investigated by using cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry and impedance spectroscopy measurements. The simple symmetric device, composed of a sandwich structure between two metal foils and a printable graphene–gelatin blend, exhibits a dependence on the open-circuit voltage in a range between 260 and 310 K. Additionally, at subzero temperature, the device is able to detect the ice/frost formation. The thermally-induced phenomena occur at the electrode/gel interface with a bias current of a few tens of μA. The occurrence of dissociation reactions within the sensor causes limiting-current phenomena in the gelatin electrolyte. A detailed model describing the charge carrier accumulation, the faradaic charge transfer and diffusion processes within the device under the current-controlled has been proposed. In order to increase the cycle stability of the temperature sensor and reduce its voltage drift and offset of the output electrical signal, a driving circuit has been designed. The eco-friendly sensor shows a temperature sensitivity of about −19 mV/K, long-term stability, fast response and low-power consumption in the range of microwatts suitable for environmental monitoring for indoor applications. Full article

This paper proposes a high-precision LDO with low-temperature drift suitable for sensitive time-domain temperature sensors. Its topology is based on multiple feedback loops and a novel approach to frequency compensation, that allows the LDO to maintain a large DC gain while handling capacitive loads that vary over a wide range. The key design constraints are derived by using a simplified, yet intuitive and effective, small-signal analysis devised for LDOs with multiple feedback loops. Simulation and measurement results are presented for implementation in a standard 130 nm CMOS process: the LDO outputs a stable 1 V voltage, when the input voltage varies between 1.25 V to 1.5 V, the load current between 0 and 100 mA, and the load capacitor between zero and 400 pF. It exhibits a DC load regulation of 1 µV/mA, a 288 µV output offset with a standard deviation of 9.5 mV. A key feature for the envisaged application is the very low thermal drift of the output offset: only 14.4 mV across the temperature range of −40 °C to +150 °C. Overall, the LDO output voltage stays within +/−3.5% of the nominal DC value over the entire line voltage, load, and temperature ranges, without trimming. The LDO requires only 1.4µA quiescent current, yet it provides excellent responses to load transients. The output voltage undershoot and overshoot caused by the load current jumping between 0 and 100 mA in 1 µs are: 10%/22% for CL = 0 and 12%/16% for CL = 400 pF, respectively. A comparative analysis against seven LDOs published in the last decade, designed for similar levels of supply voltage and output voltage and current, shows that the LDO presented here is the best option for supplying sensitive time-domain temperature sensors. The smallest thermal drift of the output offset, smaller than +/−15 mV, that is, 6.7 times smaller than its closest competitor, and the best overall performance when PSR up to 1 kHz, was considered. Full article

Thermal stability, closely associated with the operating temperature, is one of the desired properties for practical applications of organic solar cells (OSCs). In this paper, an OSC of the structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P₃HT:PCBM/ZnO/Ag was fabricated, and its current-voltage (J-V) characteristics and operating temperature were measured. The operating temperature of the same OSC was simulated using an analytical model, taking into consideration the heat transfer, charge carrier drift-diffusion and different thermal generation processes. The simulated results agreed well with the experimental ones. It was found that the thermalization of charge carriers above the band gap had the highest influence on the operating temperature of the OSCs. The energy off-set at the donor/acceptor interface in the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) was shown to have a negligible impact on the thermal stability of the OSCs. However, the energy off-sets at the electrode/charge-transporting layer and BHJ/charge-transporting layer interfaces had greater impacts on the operating temperature of OSCs at the short circuit current and maximum power point conditions. Our results revealed that a variation over the energy off-set range from 0.1 to 0.9 eV would induce an almost 10-time increase in the corresponding thermal power generation, e.g., from 0.001 to 0.01 W, in the cells operated at the short circuit current condition, contributing to about 16.7% of the total solar power absorbed in the OSC. Full article

A compact and efficient IC architecture is presented as an alternative to laser-trimmed precision thin-film resistors or look-up tables. The objective is to keep the device, such as a four-terminal Wheatstone bridge, but to compensate for post-manufacturing offset and to avoid the so-induced degradation of performances in terms of full-scale, non-linearity, power supply noise rejection and scale factor. Expected advantages are a reduced cost due to the electrical-only implementation and a possible on-field calibration of high-end sensors. Application of the proposed solution is illustrated on an example to demonstrate improvement factors on offset and sensitivity accuracy of 32 and 10, respectively. Additionally, the power supply rejection ratio is improved by 30 dB. The experimental results finally demonstrate both efficiency and versatility of the proposed solution thanks to a first silicon prototype, fabricated in a 0.35 μm Technology from AMS, connected to an off-the-shelf pressure sensor. Full article

Experiments devoted to evaluate the performance of a MEMS thermal flow sensor in measuring gas volumes are described. The sensor is a single-chip platform, including several sensing structures and a low-offset, low-noise readout interface. A recently proposed offset compensation approach is implemented obtaining low temperature drift and excellent long time stability. The sensor is fabricated by applying a simple micromachining procedure to a chip produced using the BCD6s process of STMicroelectronics. Application of a gas conveyor allowed inclusion of the sensing structure into a channel of sub-millimeter cross-section. The results of measurements performed by making controlled air volumes pass through the sensor channel in both directions at rates from 0.1 to 5 mL/min are described. Full article

Polymer-based materials are commonly used as an adhesion layer for bonding die chip and substrate in micro-system packaging. Their properties exhibit significant impact on the stability and reliability of micro-devices. The viscoelasticity, one of most important attributes of adhesive materials, is investigated for the first time in this paper to evaluate the long-term drift of micro-accelerometers. The accelerometer was modeled by a finite element (FE) method to emulate the structure deformation and stress development induced by change of adhesive property. Furthermore, the viscoelastic property of the adhesive was obtained by a series of stress–relaxation experiments using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The DMA curve was imported into the FE model to predict the drift of micro-accelerometers over time and temperature. The prediction results verified by experiments showed that the accelerometer experienced output drift due to the development of packaging stress induced by both the thermal mismatch and viscoelastic behaviors of the adhesive. The accelerometers stored at room temperature displayed a continuous drift of zero offset and sensitivity because of the material viscoelasticity. Moreover, the drift level of accelerometers experiencing high temperature load was relatively higher than those of lower temperature in the same period. Full article

This article compares three different algorithms used to compute Euler angles from data obtained by the angular rate sensor (e.g., MEMS gyroscope)—the algorithms based on a rotational matrix, on transforming angular velocity to time derivations of the Euler angles and on unit quaternion expressing rotation. Algorithms are compared by their computational efficiency and accuracy of Euler angles estimation. If attitude of the object is computed only from data obtained by the gyroscope, the quaternion-based algorithm seems to be most suitable (having similar accuracy as the matrix-based algorithm, but taking approx. 30% less clock cycles on the 8-bit microcomputer). Integration of the Euler angles’ time derivations has a singularity, therefore is not accurate at full range of object’s attitude. Since the error in every real gyroscope system tends to increase with time due to its offset and thermal drift, we also propose some measures based on compensation by additional sensors (a magnetic compass and accelerometer). Vector data of mentioned secondary sensors has to be transformed into the inertial frame of reference. While transformation of the vector by the matrix is slightly faster than doing the same by quaternion, the compensated sensor system utilizing a matrix-based algorithm can be approximately 10% faster than the system utilizing quaternions (depending on implementation and hardware). Full article

In this paper we examine the suitability of SU-8 2000 as a construction material for electrothermal actuators and the actuator stability for long-term operation. The fabrication of SU-8 was optimized for mechanical and thermal stability. Samples with different softbake duration, exposure dose and postbake temperature were evaluated using Fourier-Transform IR-spectroscopy and dynamic-mechanical analysis. The exposure dose and postbake temperature proved to have a strong influence on the cross-linking and the glass transition temperature. A final hardbake levels the effects of the process history. A high degree of crosslinking, a low drop of the dynamic modulus over temperature (30%) up to the glass transition temperature 100–140 °C were achieved for SU-8 with an exposure dose of 1500 mJ/cm², a postbake temperature of 95 °C and hardbake of 240 °C. Electrothermal actuators proved to be stable until the end of the experiment after 2400 duty cycles. Actuator deflections up to 55 μm were measured (actuator length: 4 mm) for input powers up to 160 mW and a maximum operating temperature of 120 °C. Higher temperatures led to permanent deformations and failure. An offset drift of up to 20% occurs during actuation, but converges after a burn-in phase of about two hours. Full article