Exhaust gas regulations for motor vehicles are becoming stricter year-after-year, and as internal combustion engines are being made more efficient and their exhaust gas reduced, there is increased demand for pressure sensing in the exhaust systems of diesel engine vehicles. Applying a single-chip semiconductor pressure sensor fabricated by a CMOS process, which has been successfully used for ma...

We investigated the effect of small inspiratory resistive loads on the breathing patterns of patients with COPD admitted to the ICU for acute respiratory failure. Patients were in stable clinical condition three days after weaning from the acute-phase ventilation. Healthy nonsmokers served as controls. Breathing patterns were recorded for 20-min periods during unloaded breathing (R0), then with...

Fresh water deficiency caused by climate change calls for employing novel measures to ensure safety of drinking water supply. Wireless sensor networks can be used for monitoring hydrological conditions across wide area, allowing flow forecasting and early detection of pollutants. While there are no fundamental technological obstacles to implementation of large area sensor networks, their feasib...

The key component in trace analysis is the concentration step where the analytes are accumulated before the analysis. This paper presents the development of a micromachined microconcentrator that can be used to enhance the sensitivity of microsensors. Another application demonstrated here is a concentrator-injector for a gas chromatograph. The microconcentrators were fabricated on a 6-in. silic...

Relative humidity sensors are common components in building heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, and their performance can significantly impact energy use in these systems. A study was undertaken to test and evaluate the most commonly used relative humidity sensors in building HVAC systems, namely the capacitive and resistive types. Sensor models from six different manufac...

a dissolved methane sensor based on silicone tube was designed, constructed and optimized.the silicone tube diameter, silicone tube length and helium flow rate (as the carrier gas(were considered as process parameters to be optimized.a continuous stream of helium (50 ml/min) was directed through the tubing, sweeping out the dissolved methane which diffused through the walls of the tubing from t...

A novel smart resistive-capacitive angular position sensor is presented. The main advantages of this low-cost system are its simplicity, high stability and high reliability. A very hear oscillator is used in the processing circuit to convert the position quantity to a period-modulated signal which can directly be read out by a microcontroller. The system does not need an A/D converter. The nonl...

David Arellano has been working in the Embedded Systems lab in the Electrical Engineering Department since Spring 2014 and plans on attending graduate school after receiving a bachelors degree. He also plans to stay involved with the research community after graduation. With a passion for travel, he hopes to see as much of the world as possible. Free time is spent studying theology, philosophy,...