Rubric in Vocational Education

Rubric is a very important tool for teachers and students for a variety of purposes. Teachers use the rubric for evaluating student work while students use rubrics for self-assessment. Therefore, this paper was emphasized scoring rubric as a scoring tool for teachers in an environment of Competency Based Education and Training (CBET) in Malaysia Vocational College. A total of three teachers in the fields of electrical and electronics engineering were interviewed to identify how the use of rubrics practiced since vocational transformation implemented in 2012. Overall holistic rubric used to determine the performance of students in the skills area.

An Exploration on Competency-Based Curricula in Integrated Circuit Design

In this paper the relationships between professional competences and school curriculain IC design industry are explored. The semi-structured questionnaire survey and focus group interview is the research method. Study participants are graduates of microelectronics engineering professional departments who are currently employed in the IC industry. The IC industries are defined as the electronic component manufacturing industry and optical-electronic component manufacturing industry in the semiconductor industry and optical-electronic material devices, respectively. Study participants selected from IC design industry include IC engineering and electronic & semiconductor engineering. The human training with IC design professional competence in microelectronics engineering professional departments is explored in this research. IC professional competences of human resources in the IC design industry include general intelligence and professional intelligence.

The Laser Line Detection for Autonomous Mapping Based on Color Segmentation

Laser projection or laser footprint detection is today widely used in many fields of robotics, measurement or electronics. The system accuracy strictly depends on precise laser footprint detection on target objects. This article deals with the laser line detection based on the RGB segmentation and the component labeling. As a measurement device was used the developed optical rangefinder. The optical rangefinder is equipped with vertical sweeping of the laser beam and high quality camera. This system was developed mainly for automatic exploration and mapping of unknown spaces. In the first section is presented a new detection algorithm. In the second section are presented measurements results. The measurements were performed in variable light conditions in interiors. The last part of the article present achieved results and their differences between day and night measurements.

An Evaluation of Sag Detection Techniques for Fast Solid-State Electronic Transferring to Alternate Electrical Energy Sources

This paper deals with the evaluation of different detection strategies used in power electronic devices as a critical element for an effective mitigation of voltage disturbances. The effectiveness of those detection schemes in the mitigation of disturbances such as voltage sags by a Solid-State Transfer Switch is evaluated through simulations. All critical parameters affecting their performance is analytically described and presented. Moreover, the effect of fast detection of sags on the overall performance of STS is analyzed and investigated.

Design and Characterization of CMOS Readout Circuit for ISFET and ISE Based Sensors

This paper presents the design and characterization of analog readout interface circuits for ion sensitive field effect transistor (ISFET) and ion selective electrode (ISE) based sensor. These interface circuits are implemented using MIMOS’s 0.35um CMOS technology and experimentally characterized under 24-leads QFN package. The characterization evaluates the circuit’s functionality, output sensitivity and output linearity. Commercial sensors for both ISFET and ISE are employed together with glass reference electrode during testing. The test result shows that the designed interface circuits manage to readout signals produced by both sensors with measured sensitivity of ISFET and ISE sensor are 54mV/pH and 62mV/decade, respectively. The characterized output linearity for both circuits achieves above 0.999 rsquare. The readout also has demonstrated reliable operation by passing all qualifications in reliability test plan.

Simulating Voltage Sag Using PSCAD Software

Power quality is used to describe the degree of consistency of electrical energy expected from generation source to point of use. The term power quality refers to a wide variety of electromagnetic phenomena that characterize the voltage and current at a given time and at a given location on the power system. Power quality problems can be defined as problem that results in failure of customer equipments, which manifests itself as an economic burden to users, or produces negative impacts on the environment. Voltage stability, power factor, harmonics pollution, reactive power and load unbalance are some of the factors that affect the consistency or the quality level. This research proposal proposes to investigate and analyze the causes and effects of power quality to homes and industries in Sarawak. The increasing application of electronics equipment used in the industries and homes has caused a big impact on the power quality. Many electrical devices are now interconnected to the power network and it can be observed that if the power quality of the network is good, then any loads connected to it will run smoothly and efficiently. On the other hand, if the power quality of the network is bad, then loads connected to it will fail or may cause damage to the equipments and reduced its lifetime. The outcome of this research will enable better and novel solutions of poor power quality to small industries and reduce damage of electrical devices and products in the industries.

Analog Front End Low Noise Amplifier in 0.18-µm CMOS for Ultrasound Imaging Applications

We present the design of Analog front end (AFE) low noise pre-amplifier implemented in a high voltage 0.18-µm CMOS technology for  a three dimensional ultrasound  bio microscope (3D UBM) application. The fabricated chip has 4X16 pre-amplifiers implemented to interface   a 2-D array of    high frequency capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducers (CMUT). Core AFE cell consists of a high-voltage pulser in the transmit path, and a low-noise transimpedance amplifier in the receive path. Proposed system offers a high image resolution by the use of high frequency CMUTs with associated high performance imaging electronics integrated together.  Performance requirements and the design methods of the high bandwidth transimpedance amplifier are described in the paper. A single cell of transimpedance (TIA) amplifier and the bias circuit occupies a silicon area of 250X380 µm2 and the full chip occupies a total silicon area of 10x6.8 mm².

CMOS-Compatible Plasmonic Nanocircuits for On-Chip Integration

Silicon photonics is merging as a unified platform for driving photonic based telecommunications and for local photonic based interconnect but it suffers from large footprint as compared with the nanoelectronics. Plasmonics is an attractive alternative for nanophotonics. In this work, two CMOS compatible plasmonic waveguide platforms are compared. One is the horizontal metal-insulator-Si-insulator-metal nanoplasmonic waveguide and the other is metal-insulator-Si hybrid plasmonic waveguide. Various passive and active photonic devices have been experimentally demonstrated based on these two plasmonic waveguide platforms.

A Fuzzy Predictive Filter for Sinusoidal Signals with Time-Varying Frequencies

Prediction of sinusoidal signals with time-varying frequencies has been an important research topic in power electronics systems. To solve this problem, we propose a new fuzzy predictive filtering scheme, which is based on a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter bank. Fuzzy logic is introduced here to provide appropriate interpolation of individual filter outputs. Therefore, instead of regular 'hard' switching, our method has the advantageous 'soft' switching among different filters. Simulation comparisons between the fuzzy predictive filtering and conventional filter bank-based approach are made to demonstrate that the new scheme can achieve an enhanced prediction performance for slowly changing sinusoidal input signals.

Satellite Thermal Control: Cooling by a Diphasic Loop

In space during functioning, a satellite will be heated up due to the behavior of its components such as power electronics. In order to prevent problems in the satellite, this heat has to be released in space thanks to the cooling system. This system consists of a loop heat pipe (LHP), in which a fluid streams through an evaporator and a condenser. In the evaporator, the fluid captures the heat from the satellite and evaporates. Then it flows to the condenser where it releases the heat and it condenses. In this project, the two mains parts of a cooling system are studied: the evaporator and the condenser. The study of the diphasic loop was done starting from digital simulations carried out under Matlab and Femlab.

Stability of Electrical Motor Supplied by a Five Level Inverter

The development of the power electronics has allowed increasing the precision and reliability of the electrical trainings, thanks to the adjustable inverters, as the Pulse Wide Modulation (PWM) five level inverters, which is the object of study in this article.The authors treat the relation between the law order adopted for a given system and the oscillations of the electrical and mechanical parameters of which the tolerance depends on the process with which they are integrated (paper factory, lifting of the heavy loads, etc.).Thus the best choice of the regulation indexes allows us to achieve stability and safety training without investment (management of existing equipment).

Controllable Electrical Power Plug Adapters Made As A ZigBee Wireless Sensor Network

Using Internet communication, new home electronics have functions of monitoring and control from remote. However in many case these electronics work as standalone, and old electronics are not followed. Then, we developed the total remote system include not only new electronics but olds. This systems node is a adapter of electrical power plug that embed relay switch and some sensors, and these nodes communicate with each other. the system server was build on the Internet, and users access to this system from web browsers. To reduce the cost to set up of this system, communication between adapters are used ZigBee wireless network instead of wired LAN cable[3]. From measured RSSI(received signal strength indicator) information between each nodes, the system can estimate roughly adapters were mounted on which room, and where in the room. So also it reduces the cost of mapping nodes. Using this system, energy saving and house monitoring are expected.

FWM Wavelength Conversion Analysis in a 3-Integrated Portion SOA and DFB Laser using Coupled Wave Approach and FD-BPM Method

In this paper we have numerically analyzed terahertzrange wavelength conversion using nondegenerate four wave mixing (NDFWM) in a SOA integrated DFB laser (experiments reported both in MIT electronics and Fujitsu research laboratories). For analyzing semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), we use finitedifference beam propagation method (FDBPM) based on modified nonlinear SchrÖdinger equation and for distributed feedback (DFB) laser we use coupled wave approach. We investigated wavelength conversion up to 4THz probe-pump detuning with conversion efficiency -5dB in 1THz probe-pump detuning for a SOA integrated quantum-well

Deterministic Method to Assess Kalman Filter Passive Ranging Solution Reliability

For decades, the defense business has been plagued by not having a reliable, deterministic method to know when the Kalman filter solution for passive ranging application is reliable for use by the fighter pilot. This has made it hard to accurately assess when the ranging solution can be used for situation awareness and weapons use. To date, we have used ad hoc rules-of-thumb to assess when we think the estimate of the Kalman filter standard deviation on range is reliable. A reliable algorithm has been developed at BAE Systems Electronics & Integrated Solutions that monitors the Kalman gain matrix elements – and a patent is pending. The “settling" of the gain matrix elements relates directly to when we can assess the time when the passive ranging solution is within the 10 percent-of-truth value. The focus of the paper is on surface-based passive ranging – but the method is applicable to airborne targets as well.

Investigation of Chaotic Behavior in DC-DC Converters

DC-DC converters are widely used in regulated switched mode power supplies and in DC motor drive applications. There are several sources of unwanted nonlinearity in practical power converters. In addition, their operation is characterized by switching that gives birth to a variety of nonlinear dynamics. DC-DC buck and boost converters controlled by pulse-width modulation (PWM) have been simulated. The voltage waveforms and attractors obtained from the circuit simulation have been studied. With the onset of instability, the phenomenon of subharmonic oscillations, quasi-periodicity, bifurcations, and chaos have been observed. This paper is mainly motivated by potential contributions of chaos theory in the design, analysis and control of power converters, in particular and power electronics circuits, in general.

FEA Modeling of Material Removal Rate in Electrical Discharge Machining of Al6063/SiC Composites

Metal matrix composites (MMC) are generating extensive interest in diverse fields like defense, aerospace, electronics and automotive industries. In this present investigation, material removal rate (MRR) modeling has been carried out using an axisymmetric model of Al-SiC composite during electrical discharge machining (EDM). A FEA model of single spark EDM was developed to calculate the temperature distribution.Further, single spark model was extended to simulate the second discharge. For multi-discharge machining material removal was calculated by calculating the number of pulses. Validation of model has been done by comparing the experimental results obtained under the same process parameters with the analytical results. A good agreement was found between the experimental results and the theoretical value.

Applications of Carbon Fibers Produced from Polyacrylonitrile Fibers

Carbon fibers have specific characteristics in comparison with industrial and structural materials used in different applications. Special properties of carbon fibers make them attractive for reinforcing and fabrication of composites. These fibers have been utilized for composites of metals, ceramics and plastics. However, it-s mainly used in different forms to reinforce lightweight polymer materials such as epoxy resin, polyesters or polyamides. The composites of carbon fiber are stronger than steel, stiffer than titanium, and lighter than aluminum and nowadays they are used in a variety of applications. This study explains applications of carbon fibers in different fields such as space, aviation, transportation, medical, construction, energy, sporting goods, electronics, and the other commercial/industrial applications. The last findings of composites with polymer, metal and ceramic matrices containing carbon fibers and their applications in the world investigated. Researches show that carbon fibers-reinforced composites due to unique properties (including high specific strength and specific modulus, low thermal expansion coefficient, high fatigue strength, and high thermal stability) can be replaced with common industrial and structural materials.

Evaluation of Fuzzy ARTMAP with DBSCAN in VLSI Application

The various applications of VLSI circuits in highperformance computing, telecommunications, and consumer electronics has been expanding progressively, and at a very hasty pace. This paper describes a new model for partitioning a circuit using DBSCAN and fuzzy ARTMAP neural network. The first step is concerned with feature extraction, where we had make use DBSCAN algorithm. The second step is the classification and is composed of a fuzzy ARTMAP neural network. The performance of both approaches is compared using benchmark data provided by MCNC standard cell placement benchmark netlists. Analysis of the investigational results proved that the fuzzy ARTMAP with DBSCAN model achieves greater performance then only fuzzy ARTMAP in recognizing sub-circuits with lowest amount of interconnections between them The recognition rate using fuzzy ARTMAP with DBSCAN is 97.7% compared to only fuzzy ARTMAP.

Immunity of Integrated Drive System, Effects of Radiated and Conducted Emission

In this paper the problems associated with immunity of embedded systems used in Motor-Drive systems are investigated and appropriate solutions are presented. Integration of VSD motor systems (Integral Motor) while partially reducing some of these effects, adds to immunity problem of their embedded systems. Fail safe operation of an Integral Motor in arduous industrial environments is considered. In this paper an integral motor with a unique design is proposed to overcome critical issues such as heat, vibration and electromagnetic interference which are damaging to sensitive electronics without requirement of any additional cooling system. Advantages of the proposed Integral motor are compactness of combo motor and drive system with no external cabling/wiring. This motor provides a perfect shielding for least amount of radiated emission. It has an inbuilt filter for EMC compliance and has been designed to provide lower EMC noise for immunity of the internal electronics as well as the other neighbouring systems.

Noise Depressed in a Micro Stepping Motor

An investigation of noise in a micro stepping motor is considered to study in this article. Because of the trend towards higher precision and more and more small 3C (including Computer, Communication and Consumer Electronics) products, the micro stepping motor is frequently used to drive the micro system or the other 3C products. Unfortunately, noise in a micro stepped motor is too large to accept by the customs. To depress the noise of a micro stepped motor, the dynamic characteristics in this system must be studied. In this article, a Visual Basic (VB) computer program speed controlled micro stepped motor in a digital camera is investigated. Karman KD2300-2S non-contract eddy current displacement sensor, probe microphone, and HP 35670A analyzer are employed to analyze the dynamic characteristics of vibration and noise in a motor. The vibration and noise measurement of different type of bearings and different treatment of coils are compared. The rotating components, bearings, coil, etc. of the motor play the important roles in producing vibration and noise. It is found that the noise will be depressed about 3~4 dB and 6~7 dB, when substitutes the copper bearing with plastic one and coats the motor coil with paraffin wax, respectively.