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Luckasavitch, Katherine

University of British Columbia

Saltwater ice accretion poses serious safety and operational challenges to various industrial applications including transportation, aerospace, and power generation, if it is not identified. For the timely detection of saltwater ice formation, saltwater ice sensors must be utilized. Saltwater ice sensing occurs through a chain of circuit components which transform and condition the physical phenomena into a readable digital output. Each component contributes to the overall success of the sensing platform. The primary focus of this thesis is the design, optimization, and customization of both a saltwater ice sensor and an ADC for a saltwater ice sensing platform. Recently, planar microwave resonators have demonstrated significant performance as ice sensors. Compared to a single resonator, coupled pla- nar microwave resonators offer higher quality factor and a larger dynamic range. In this study, both electrically and magnetically coupled resonators were investigated. Through simulation and experimentation, it was observed that the electrically coupled resonators were ineffective in monitoring salt- water ice formation due to the high conductivity of saltwater. Therefore, the magnetically coupled resonators were selected as the desirable sensor for the saltwater ice sensing platform, as they could detect the formation of saltwater ice. ADCs are a significant component used in almost all electronic systems to convert analog signals to a digital output. There are several ADC structures available with various speed, power consumption, and resolution capabilities. A 10-bit 100 kHz successive approximation register (SAR) ADC was selected as the ADC for the saltwater ice sensing platform as it offers low power and medium resolution. This study consisted of the system and circuit level design, simulation, analysis, and optimization of a 10-bit SAR ADC. System level simulations of the capacitive array and SAR Logic were conducted in MATLAB Simulink. The SAR ADC was simulated in Cadence using 180 nm Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) with a reference voltage of 1.8 V. Circuit level design, simulation, and analysis was completed on the capacitive array, SAR Logic, and comparator. Together the coupled microwave resonator sensor and 10-bit SAR ADC offer a robust, low power, and cost-effective method to saltwater ice detection applications.

Text

2021-08-23

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/79372

Electrical Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/