Caring About Home Care: A Framework for Improvement in Ontario

Produced by the Centre for Global Social Policy in the Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto.There is growing concern about the increasing demand for home care and personal support workers in Ontario. Wider discussions on the quality of care and the value of care are occurring in public spheres. Rising discontent over care in the healthcare system is leading to more calls for action. This briefing provides insight into the home care sector and personal support work with a focus on social and economic policy considerations, and concludes with sustainable policy recommendations

Innovative rotor design concepts for a 10 mw wind turbine: Scaling Technique, Performance and Feasibility Investigation

The reduction of the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCoE) in wind energy, and offshore in particular, is among the main objectives of research in the academia nowadays, and a demanding task as well. Offshore wind farms are capital intensive investments and lowering uncertainties and costs throughout design, planning, installation and operational phases will offer cheaper electricity production and a more competitive nature against fossil fuel powered energy. Of course, a big part of the total cost of a wind farm is the wind turbines themselves. Innovations in the design and manufacturing processes are always welcome in order to further advance within the learning curve of the technology and achieve efficient economies of scale. Furthermore, the blades of the wind turbine rotor are its most important component because they express the most basic operation of the turbine, aerodynamics and energy capture. Yet they pose structural challenges. There are efforts to maximise energy output while keeping their mass low, which should subsequently drive down secondary costs. Additionally, another important factor is the increase of energy output in the farm level that can lead to a larger cost reduction. This thesis aims to investigate the performance and feasibility of lightweight, low power density rotors. This investigation is made by acquiring a performance baseline with the reference rotor of the 10 MW INNWIND machine and comparing it with the proposed alternative rotor designs by means of parametrical modifications. The reference machine rotor radius is 89.166 m, with a blade mass of 41.7 tn and a rated power output of 10 MW operating at an optimal lambda of 7.5. All the new designs include an increase in rotor radius to 103 m. They also include differences in operational parameters such as rated rotational speed, blade slenderness and tip speed, while rated power stays the same. These designs result in different blade masses and allocation of energy production...Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technolog

Study and design of integrated circuits for high frequency applications

The object of this thesis focuses on the study, design and implementation of circuit units identified in a phase-locked loop system (PLL). More specifically, these circuits are a phase-frequency detector, a charge pump and a programmable frequency divider based on a modular architecture for operation at 1.8GHz and 0.18mm CMOS RF process. Also presents a programmable frequency divider circuit based on the technique of pulse-swallow function in 15GHz and RF CMOS 90nm process, which is part of a PLL for wireless data transmission using very high data rate (1Gbps) and long distances (~1km). Emphasis was focused on achieving low phase noise, since PLL close-in noise bandwidth significantly affected by noise performance, low power consumption and small chip silicon area. Moreover these circuits and particularly the programmable frequency divider can be used in wide-band applications supporting multi-band and multi-standard communication protocols.Additionally exponential current generator and variable gain amplifier (VGA) circuits have been studied and implemented. The former can be applied in voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs), for increasing the frequency range, due to the exponential variation of the current/voltage control signal, and in variable gain amplifiers to establish a linear-in-dB gain range (VGA). Specifically they proposed two versions of exponential current generator circuits with robustness against to temperature, process parameters and supply voltage (PVT) variations and operation at low supply voltage. Furthermore a variable gain amplifier VGA has been designed, which can used both in PLL systems for VCO sensitivity stabilization, and in loop automatic gain control systems (AGC), in order to provide a constant signal power regardless of the input signal voltage level variations at the antenna of a modern transceiver.Το αντικείμενο αυτής της διατριβής εστιάζεται στη μελέτη, στο σχεδιασμό και στην υλοποίηση κυκλωματικών μονάδων που εντοπίζονται σε ένα σύστημα βρόχου κλειδωμένης φάσης (PLL). Πιο συγκεκριμένα τα κυκλώματα αυτά αφορούν έναν ανιχνευτή φάσης-συχνότητας, μία αντλία φορτίου και έναν προγραμματιζόμενο διαιρέτη συχνότητας αρθρωτής διάταξης για λειτουργία στα 1.8GHz και σε τεχνολογία CMOS RF 0.18μm Επίσης παρουσιάζεται ένα κύκλωμα προγραμματιζόμενου διαιρέτη συχνότητας βασισμένο στην τεχνική pulse-swallow για λειτουργία στα 15GHz (90nm), το οποίο αποτελεί μέρος ενός PLL για χρήση ασύρματης μετάδοσης δεδομένων πολύ υψηλού ρυθμού (1Gbps) και για μεγάλες αποστάσεις (1km). Κατά τον σχεδιασμό τους ιδιαίτερη έμφαση δόθηκε στην επίτευξη χαμηλού θορύβου φάσης, αφού επηρεάζουν σημαντικά την απόδοση θορύβου εντός εύρος ζώνης του PLL, χαμηλής κατανάλωσης ρεύματος και μικρής επιφάνειας ολοκλήρωσης στο πυρίτιο. Επιπλέον τα κυκλώματα αυτά και ιδιαίτερα οι προγραμματιζόμενοι διαιρέτες συχνότητας μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν σε εφαρμογές όπου απαιτείται μεγάλο εύρος ζώνης συχνοτήτων (UWB) και υποστήριξη πολυζωνικών και πολλαπλών πρωτοκόλλων επικοινωνίας. Επιπρόσθετα μελετήθηκαν και υλοποιήθηκαν κυκλώματα γεννητριών εκθετικού ρεύματος και ενισχυτών μεταβλητού κέρδους (VGA). Tα πρώτα βρίσκουν εφαρμογή σε κυκλώματα ταλαντωτών ελεγχόμενων από τάση (VCO), για την αύξηση της περιοχής τιμών συχνοτήτων, λόγω της εκθετικής μεταβολής του ρεύματος/τάσης ελέγχου, αλλά και σε κυκλώματα ενισχυτών μεταβλητού κέρδους (VGA). Συγκεκριμένα προτείνονται δύο εκδόσεις κυκλωμάτων γεννήτριας εκθετικού ρεύματος, με ιδιαίτερα χαρακτηριστικά την ανθεκτικότητα έναντι των μεταβολών της θερμοκρασίας, των παραμέτρων της τεχνολογίας και της τάσης τροφοδοσίας (PVT) καθώς και τη λειτουργία σε χαμηλή τάση τροφοδοσίας. Επιπλέον σχεδιάστηκε ένας ενισχυτής μεταβλητού κέρδους VGA, ο οποίος χρησιμοποιείται τόσο σε συστήματα PLL για την σταθεροποίηση των μεταβολών της ευαισθησίας του VCO, όσο και σε συστήματα βρόχου αυτομάτου ελέγχου κέρδους (AGC), για την παροχή σήματος με σταθερή ισχύ ανεξάρτητα από τις μεταβολές του πλάτους του σήματος εισόδου στην κεραία ενός σύγχρονου πομποδέκτη

A study of different types of current mirrors using polysilicon TFTs

Polysilicon thin-film technology has become of great interest due to the demand for large area electronic devices. Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Displays (AMLCDs) and Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Displays (AMOLEDs) are among the fields where polysilicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) are most commonly used. Such devices, generally, require analog signal processing. This fact makes the performance of basic analog blocks, such as current mirrors implemented with poly-Si TFTs, crucial. This paper examines the performance of various current mirror designs through simulation. Finally, a novel design of a current mirror is proposed aimed to be used in low voltage applications.  QC 20111216“PYTHAGORAS: Study and Development of T.F.T.s models – Design and Development of Li-ion batteries for their supply” funded by the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious Affair