The Impact of Soft Error On C-Element with Different Technology

This paper presents current injection resemble single event upset (SEU) current at the vulnerable nodes on Celements in particular Single Inverter with Inverter Latch (SIL) under two different technology 90nm and 180nm. C-element mainly uses in asynchronous circuits as the demand of consuming low power continue to become more important compared with synchronous circuits. However, one of the problems of asynchronous circuits is that they stay sensitive to SEU continuously for the whole cycle of operation. For asynchronous circuits, an acknowledgement signal is sent to the preceding register after the current operation is finished, indicating it is ready for the next operation. In the event of SEU hitting one of the registers, no acknowledgement signal is sent and therefore the preceding register does not assign the next operation to the current computational block. It is observed that the size of the transistor is the most important factors of critical charge variation since it has the highest standard deviation compared with temperature. This is due to the increasing the size of the transistors increases the gate capacitance from the output and therefore the collected charge needed to flip the output is also larger. However, as the size of the circuit is bigger, the probability of hitting by SEU is also increased even though the circuit is more resistant against SEU. The least significant factor is the temperature. As the temperature increased, the mobility of the carrier is reduced and degrades the performance of the transistor

Accuracy of Perceptron based beamforming for embedded smart and MIMO antennas

Array antennas have a nonlinear, complex relationship between the antenna beams generated and the array input functions that generate the steerable beams. In this paper we demonstrate the use of a simple, computationally less intensive Perceptron Neural Network with non-linear sigmoid activation function to do the synthesis of the desired antenna beam. The single neuron is used, where its optimized weights will yield the beam shape required. This paper presents a successfully implemented Perceptron and discusses the error between the desired and Perceptron generated beams The successful beam control gives high accuracy in the maximum radiation direction of the desired beam, as well as optimization in the direction of null points. Moreover, a comparison between the array antenna beams obtained using the Perceptron Single Neuron Weight Optimization method (SNWOM) and the optimized beams obtained using the Least Mean Square (LMS) method, further demonstrates the reliability and accuracy of the Perceptron based beamformer. The tests were performed for two different desired antenna beams: one braod side beam and the other with the antenna radiating in four different desired directions. The Perceptron based antenna may be embedded in the Arduino microcontroller used. It is also shown why it is not possible to get a single beam, linear array antenna with the Perceptron based array reported herein

Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution from Water Splitting Using Core-Shell Structured Cu/ZnS/COF Composites

Hydrogen is considered to be a very efficient and clean fuel since it is a renewable and non-polluting gas with a high energy density; thus, it has drawn much attention as an alternative fuel, in order to alleviate the issue of global warming caused by the excess use of fossil fuels. In this work, a novel Cu/ZnS/COF composite photocatalyst with a core–shell structure was synthesized for photocatalytic hydrogen production via water splitting. The Cu/ZnS/COF microspheres formed by Cu/ZnS crystal aggregation were covered by a microporous thin-film COF with a porous network structure, where COF was also modified by the dual-effective redox sites of C=O and N=N. The photocatalytic hydrogen production results showed that the hydrogen production rate reached 278.4 µmol g−1 h−1, which may be attributed to its special structure, which has a large number of active sites, a more negative conduction band than the reduction of H+ to H2, and the ability to inhibit the recombination of electron–hole pairs. Finally, a possible mechanism was proposed to effectively explain the improved photocatalytic performance of the photocatalytic system. The present work provides a new concept, in order to construct a highly efficient hydrogen production catalyst and broaden the applications of ZnS-based materials

Replacing Ground Rod Joining Cable from Copper to Galvanized Iron

Research on electrical grounding is well established over the past 180 years but recently due to the ever increasing price of copper, theft of copper from grounding systems has become common. The cost of a lack of integrity of electrical power systems due to the stolen copper from grounding systems can be massive. Therefore it is the objective of this research is to study if the 35mm2 copper ground rod joining cable can be replaced with galvanized iron. Galvanized iron was chosen as a replacement because of its extensive used in civil engineering works which has resulted in its cheap price and easy availability. It also has sufficient electrical conductivity. The methodology of this work is to measure the ground resistance with a ground resistance meter; with copper and galvanized iron as the joining cable, over a period of eight months. The findings are that though the ground resistance using galvanized iron is higher, it is still cost effective to use more ground rods with galvanized iron joins rather than fewer ground rods with copper joints. Another unexpected finding is that beyond a certain number of joined ground rods, the reduction in ground resistance is not significant. A future work is to solve the remaining weak point in grounding systems which is the join between the joining cable and the ground rod

Detection of Environmentally Harmful Malathion Pesticides Using a Bimetallic Oxide of CuO Nanoparticles Dispersed over a 3D ZnO Nanoflower

Super-sensitive malathion detection was achieved using a nonenzymatic electrochemical sensor based on a CuO/ZnO-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Due to the high affinity between the Cu element and the sulfur groups in malathion, the developed CuO-ZnO/GCE sensor may bond malathion with ease, inhibiting the redox signal of the Cu element when malathion is present. In addition to significantly increasing the ability of electron transfer, the addition of 3D-flower-like ZnO enhances active sites of the sensor interface for the high affinity of malathion, giving the CuO-ZnO/GCE composite an exceptional level of sensitivity and selectivity. This enzyme-free CuO-ZnO/GCE malathion sensor demonstrates outstanding stability and excellent detection performance under optimal operating conditions with a wide linear range of malathion from 0 to 200 nM and a low detection limit of 1.367 nM. A promising alternative technique for organophosphorus pesticide (OP) determination is offered by the analytical performance of the proposed sensor, and this method can be quickly and sensitively applied to samples that have been contaminated with these pesticides

Effect of Lightning Surge in AC Power and Telecommunication Lines for Electrical Devices

Lightning surge phenomenon has been recognized as one of a threat to electrical and electronics devices. This event can cause degradation to the devices performance and at high energy can cause the total failure in devices operation. This research work objective is to observe and monitor the effect of lightning surge to electrical devices especially through their power lines and telecommunication lines port. The surge immunity test was conducted using lightning surge simulator to evaluate the immunity of electrical equipment such as multifunction printer, laser fax and integrated telephone systems to ensure them continues reliability operation. Variable voltage values have been injected to electrical devices in an increasing value up to 15 kV or until the devices cannot withstand the voltage and start to degrade, temporary lost function and totally lost function. The devices performance and behavior has been monitored at the normal performance until abnormality performance has been observed and amount of voltage value at that time were recorded for analysis purpose. From this experiment, the high functional devices such as multi-function printer had the lowest immunity to the surge value followed by laser fax and lastly is integrated telephone systems. It was shown that the degradation and damage would occur if there were some narrow coincidence between the phase angle of waveform and superposition of surge. In this case, the frequently occur at phase angle of 90° and 270°, respectively. The results revealed that the worst and high probability for damage to occur towards coupling/decoupling network is at common mode compare to differential mode (L-PE & N-PE)

Transient Overvoltage Simulation in 500 kV Transmission Line Plan of Sarawak, Malaysia using PSCAD

Transmission system is a crucial system in electrical power since the system transmit the electricity from power generation to consumer load. According to World Bank, the power losses from transmission lines are rapidly increasing from year to year at the rate of 3.85% in the year of 2013 to 5.792%in 2014. Losses in transmission system are most likely from power quality problems such as transients. Transients are the outcome of high unexpected increment in voltage or current surge magnitudes. The peak values of both voltages and current are usuallymore than twice of that normal voltage and current amplitudes. The surges due to transients can vitally cause power system failure and breakdown of electrical equipment especially at the substations. There were few known transient overcurrent and overvoltage problems, which are due to faults, lightning and line energizing, respectively. This research work mainly focuses on simulating transients for 500 kV transmission system which employ Sarawak as the case study location. Sarawak currently has main 275 kVtransmission line covering the whole Sarawak from Miri to Kuching known as Sarawak backbone, but due to lots of industries and rapid development and urbanization boom in Sarawak, there is a planned of 500 kV transmission line as a backup if the 275 kV transmission line proves inadequate. In Sarawak, the 500 kV is planned to be energized at 275 kV. But, in fact this work is for that transmission line to be operated at 500 kV, hence, monitoring the highest transient may occur. The results revealed that lightning and three-phase faults of 1.0 s fault time duration cause the highest change in amplitude of current on the line up to 9.06 pu and 9.27 pu, respectively. The highest lightning amplitude is observed when lightning was simulated at the receiving end of the line which is near to the Tada substation