This book describes ultra low power capacitive sensor interfaces, and presents the realization of a very low power generic sensor interface chip that is adaptable to a broad range of capacitive sensors. The book opens by reviewing important design aspects for autonomous sensor systems, discusses different building blocks, and presents the modular architecture for the generic sensor interface chip. Finally, the generic sensor interface chip is shown in state-of-the-art applications.

A major barrier to the introduction of ferroelectric devices into mass markets remains their limited reliability due to fatigue. The underlying physical and chemical mechanisms of this material fatigue phenomenon are extremely complex, and the relevant influences range from single-point defects to macroscopic boundary conditions. This book summarizes the different aspects of fatigue in ferroelectrics. It is primarily concerned with bulk material effects. Mechanical, electrical, and physico-chemical processes are described; reference data are given for different loading regimes and boundary conditions; and various fatigue models are compared. The monograph also demonstrates how the results of acoustic emission and of microscopy studies reveal the microscopic origins of fatigue in ferroelectric devices.

This book sheds light on the large-scale engineering systems that shape and guide our everyday lives. It does this by bringing together the latest research and practice defining the emerging field of Complex Engineered Systems. Understanding, designing, building and controlling such complex systems is going to be a central challenge for engineers in the coming decades. This book is a step toward addressing that challenge.

In this book, modeling and control design of electric motors, namely step motors, brushless DC motors and induction motors, are considered. The book focuses on recent advances on feedback control designs for various types of electric motors, with a slight emphasis on stepper motors. For this purpose, the authors explore modeling of these devices to the extent needed to provide a high-performance controller, but at the same time one amenable to model-based nonlinear designs. The control designs focus primarily on recent robust adaptive nonlinear controllers to attain high performance. It is shown that the adaptive robust nonlinear controller on its own achieves reasonably good performance without requiring the exact knowledge of motor parameters. While carefully tuned classical controllers often achieve required performance in many applications, it is hoped that the advocated robust and adaptive designs will lead to standard universal controllers with minimal need for fine tuning of control parameters.

The International Workshop on Embedded Systems -- Modeling, Technology, and Applications is the seventh in a successful series of workshops that were established by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Technische Universitat Berlin. The goal of those workshops is to bring together researchers from both universities in order to present research results to an international community. Successfully realizing Embedded Systems requires methods and tools from different disciplines. Formal specification techniques not only for the embedded system itself but also for the device and environment that is controlled by the embedded system are used for functional and non-functional properties (e.g. performance, real-time behavior). Formal models allow analyzing and optimizing those properties. Different methods and tools are used to design the required behavior of the system and finally to implement and test the system."

The International Congress on Energy Efficiency and Energy Related Materials (ENEFM2013) was held on 9-12 October, 2013. This three-day congress focused on the latest developments of sustainable energy technologies, materials for sustainable energy applications and environmental & economic perspectives of energy. These proceedings include 63 peer reviewed technical papers, submitted from leading academic and research institutions from over 23 countries, representing some of the most cutting edge research available. The papers included were presented at the congress in the following sessions: General Issues Wind Energy Solar Energy Nuclear Energy Biofuels and Bioenergy Energy Storage Energy Conservation and Efficiency Energy in Buildings Economical and Environmental Issues Environment Energy Requirements Economic Development Materials for Sustainable Energy Hydrogen Production and Storage Photovoltaic Cells Thermionic Converters Batteries and Superconductors Phase Change Materials Fuel Cells Superconductors

Currently employed at STMicroelectronics, Transactional-Level Modeling (TLM) puts forward a novel SoC design methodology beyond RTL with measured improvements of productivity and first time silicon success.

The SystemC consortium has published the official TLM development kit in May 2005 to standardize this modeling technique. The library is flexible enough to model components and systems at many different levels of abstractions: from cycle-accurate to untimed models, and from bit-true behavior to floating-point algorithms. However, careful selection of the abstraction level and associated methodology is crucial to ensure practical gains for design teams.

Transaction-Level Modeling with SystemC presents the formalized abstraction and related methodology defined at STMicroelectronics, and covers all major topics related to the Electronic System-Level (ESL) industry:

- TLM modeling concepts
- Early embedded software development based on SoC virtual prototypes
- Functional verification using reference models
- Architecture analysis with mixed TLM and cycle accurate platforms
- Unifying TLM and RTL with platform automation tools

Complementary to the book, open source code to put this approach into practice is available on several Internet sites as indicated in the first chapter.

An aging population, increasing obesity and more people with mobility impairments are bringing new challenges to the management of routine and emergency people movement in many countries. These population challenges, coupled with the innovative designs being suggested for both the built environment and other commonly used structures (e.g., transportation systems) and the increasingly complex incident scenarios of fire, terrorism, and large-scale community disasters, provide even greater challenges to population management and safety.

"Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics," an edited volume, is based on the Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics (PED) 5th International 2010 conference, March 8th-10th 2010, located at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. This volume addresses both pedestrian and evacuation dynamics and associated human behavior to provide answers for policy makers, designers, and emergency management to help solve real world problems in this rapidly developing field. Data collection, analysis, and model development of people movement and behavior during nonemergency and emergency situations will be covered as well.

This book is intended to address both the quantitative and qualitative issues of programmable controllers for factory automation. It is helpful for both the newcomer to the field and the experienced control engineer requiring a fresh perspective.

This is a thorough revision of the 2007 publication, and includes five new chapters and brings all existing chapters completely up to date. There have been many advances in hydropower and renewable technologies since the original publication, and Europe, and particularly Scandinavia, plan many more in the coming years. From a review of the original edition: "... it is important to note that the author deals well with his selected topics. ... I recommend this book to all readers who wish to learn more about the economics of hydroelectric power." (Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Interfaces, Vol. 39 (1), January-February, 2009)

In this book, experts from academia and industry present the latest advances in scientific theory relating to applied electromagnetics and examine current and emerging applications particularly within the fields of electronics, communications, and computer technology. The book is based on presentations delivered at APPEIC 2015, the 2nd Applied Electromagnetic International Conference, held in Krabi, Thailand in December 2015. The conference provided an ideal platform for researchers and specialists to deliver both theoretically and practically oriented contributions on a wide range of topics relevant to the theme of nurturing applied electromagnetics for human technology. Many novel aspects were addressed, and the contributions selected for this book highlight the relevance of advances in applied electromagnetics to a variety of industrial engineering problems and identify exciting futu re directions for research.

Showcases the state-of-the-art research in the area of AI with specific consideration to engineering, management and safety of civil construction. Offers detailed insights towards applying AI into design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure Leverages the various sub-disciplines of AI to arrive at modern, smart, and safe infrastructure as well as achieve a synergy between users/commuters and such structures. Covers practical case studies of primary interest to students, researchers, engineers, social scientists and government officials.

Updated to integrated modular avionics, and cabin and aircraft information systems Ideal for students gaining EASA Part 66 licences, particularly the B1 or B2 licence One of Routledge's core aircraft maintenance titles.

This book discusses topics related to power electronics, especially electromagnetic transient analysis and control of high-power electronics conversion. It focuses on the re-evaluation of power electronics, transient analysis and modeling, device-based system-safe operating area, and energy balance-based control methods, and presenting, for the first time, numerous experimental results for the transient process of various real-world converters. The book systematically presents both theoretical analysis and practical applications. The first chapter discusses the structure and attributes of power electronics systems, highlighting the analysis and synthesis, while the second chapter explores the transient process and modeling for power electronics systems. The transient features of power devices at switching-on/off, transient conversion circuit with stray parameters and device-based system-safe operating area are described in the subsequent three chapters. The book also examines the measurement of transient processes, electromagnetic pulses and their series, as well as high-performance, closed-loop control, and expounds the basic principles and method of the energy-balanced control strategy. Lastly, it introduces the applications of transient analysis of typical power electronics systems. The book is valuable as a textbook for college students, and as a reference resource for electrical engineers as well as anyone working in the field of high-power electronics system.

Focusing on how visual information is represented, stored and extracted in the human brain, this book uses cognitive neural modeling in order to show how visual information is represented and memorized in the brain. Breaking through traditional visual information processing methods, the author combines our understanding of perception and memory from the human brain with computer vision technology, and provides a new approach for image recognition and classification. While biological visual cognition models and human brain memory models are established, applications such as pest recognition and carrot detection are also involved in this book. Given the range of topics covered, this book is a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners interested in the rapidly evolving field of neurocomputing, computer vision and machine learning.

The first model for the distribution of ions near the surface of a metal electrode was devised by Helmholtz in 1874. He envisaged two parallel sheets of charges of opposite sign located one on the metal surface and the other on the solution side, a few nanometers away, exactly as in the case of a parallel plate capacitor. The rigidity of such a model was allowed for by Gouy and Chapman inde pendently, by considering that ions in solution are subject to thermal motion so that their distribution from the metal surface turns out diffuse. Stern recognized that ions in solution do not behave as point charges as in the Gouy-Chapman treatment, and let the center of the ion charges reside at some distance from the metal surface while the distribution was still governed by the Gouy-Chapman view. Finally, in 1947, D. C. Grahame transferred the knowledge of the struc ture of electrolyte solutions into the model of a metal/solution interface, by en visaging different planes of closest approach to the electrode surface depending on whether an ion is solvated or interacts directly with the solid wall. Thus, the Gouy-Chapman-Stern-Grahame model of the so-called electrical double layer was born, a model that is still qualitatively accepted, although theoreti cians have introduced a number of new parameters of which people were not aware 50 years ago."

The book Computer Applications in Engineering and Management is about computer applications in management, electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and civil engineering. It covers the software tools for office automation, introduces the basic concepts of database management, and provides an overview about the concepts of data communication, internet, and e-commerce. Additionally, the book explains the principles of computing management used in construction of buildings in civil engineering and the role of computers in power grid automation in electronics engineering. Features Provides an insight to prospective research and application areas related to industry and technology Includes industry-based inputs Provides a hands-on approach for readers of the book to practice and assimilate learning This book is primarily aimed at undergraduates and graduates in computer science, information technology, civil engineering, electronics and electrical engineering, management, academicians, and research scholars.

This book discusses in detail the CMOS implementation of energy harvesting. The authors describe an integrated, indoor light energy harvesting system, based on a controller circuit that dynamically and automatically adjusts its operation to meet the actual light circumstances of the environment where the system is placed. The system is intended to power a sensor node, enabling an autonomous wireless sensor network (WSN). Although designed to cope with indoor light levels, the system is also able to work with higher levels, making it an all-round light energy harvesting system. The discussion includes experimental data obtained from an integrated manufactured prototype, which in conjunction with a photovoltaic (PV) cell, serves as a proof of concept of the desired energy harvesting system.

Every engineer must eventually face their first daunting design project. Scheduling, organization, budgeting, prototyping: all can be overwhelming in the short time given to complete the project. While there are resources available on project management and the design process, many are focused too narrowly on specific topics or areas of engineering. Practical Engineering Design presents a complete overview of the design project and beyond for any engineering discipline, including sections on how to protect intellectual property rights and suggestions for turning the project into a business. An outgrowth of the editors' broad experience teaching the capstone Engineering Design course, Practical Engineering Design reflects the most pressing and often-repeated questions with a set of guidelines for the entire process. The editors present two sample project reports and presentations in the appendix and refer to them throughout the book, using examples and critiques to demonstrate specific suggestions for improving the quality of writing and presentation. Real-world examples demonstrate how to formulate schedules and budgets, and generous references in each chapter offer direction to more in-depth information. Whether for a co-op assignment or your first project on the job, this is the most comprehensive guide available for deciding where to begin, organizing the team, budgeting time and resources, and, most importantly, completing the project successfully.

As the demand for efficient energy sources continues to grow around the globe, electrical systems are becoming more essential in an effort to meet these increased needs. As these systems are being utilized more frequently, it becomes imperative to find ways of optimizing their overall function. The Handbook of Research on Emerging Technologies for Electrical Power Planning, Analysis, and Optimization features emergent methods and research in the systemic and strategic planning of energy usage. Highlighting theoretical perspectives and empirical research, this handbook is a comprehensive reference source for researchers, practitioners, students, and professionals interested in the current advancements and efficient use in power systems.

Reliability of Semiconductor Lasers and Optoelectronic Devices simplifies complex concepts of optoelectronics reliability with approachable introductory chapters and a focus on real-world applications. This book provides a brief look at the fundamentals of laser diodes, introduces reliability qualification, and then presents real-world case studies discussing the principles of reliability and what occurs when these rules are broken. Then this book comprehensively looks at optoelectronics devices and the defects that cause premature failure in them and how to control those defects. Key materials and devices are reviewed including silicon photonics, vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), InGaN LEDs and lasers, and AlGaN LEDs, covering the majority of optoelectronic devices that we use in our everyday lives, powering the Internet, telecommunication, solid-state lighting, illuminators, and many other applications. This book features contributions from experts in industry and academia working in these areas and includes numerous practical examples and case studies. This book is suitable for new entrants to the field of optoelectronics working in R&D.

As structural elements, anisotropic elastic plates find wide applications in modern technology. The plates here are considered to be subjected to not only inplane load but also transverse load. In other words, both plane and plate bending problems as well as the stretching-bending coupling problems are all explained in this book.

In addition to the introduction of the theory of anisotropic elasticity, several important subjects have are discussed in this book such as interfaces, cracks, holes, inclusions, contact problems, piezoelectric materials, thermoelastic problems and boundary element analysis.