Journal of Undergraduate Research

Mallory Phillips and Dr. Aaron R. Hawkins, Electrical Engineering Dept Optoelectronics are made on the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material by attaching light-sensitive polymers to the surface, then removing patterns generated in the polymer. Waveguides can be made on the same substrate to interface directly with optoelectronics. They are made from raised […]

Alan Nelson In my ORCA grant proposal, I described a novel solid-state amplifier known as the SIM (Solidstate Impact-ionization Multiplier) that has been developed here at BYU. It is particularly useful for amplifying weak optical signals—weak such that they would require low-noise amplification in order to avoid garbling the signal with added amplifier noise. The […]

Bruce M. Green and Dr. Michael A. Jensen, Electrical and Computer Engineering The presence of human tissue near the antenna of a portable cellular phone reduces its range of reception and transmission. This research investigates the feasibility of antenna diversity (more than one antenna on a handset) as a means of combating the loss of […]

Haobo (Jack) Dong and Dr. Gregory Nordin, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Introduction Microfluidics is the science and technology of systems that process or manipulate small amounts of fluidics, using channels with dimensions of tens to hundreds of micrometers [1]. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a soft elastomeric material, is a popular choice in microfluidics research due […]

Brett T. Walkenhorst and Dr. David V. Arnold, Electrical and Computer Engineering Scatterometry is a method used today to track and predict global warming, storms, and other important factors in the earth’s climate. NASA currently has a scatterometer in orbit around earth called QuikScat. There are many useful applications of scatterometry, but there are still […]

Charles G. Brown and Dr. David Long, Electrical and Computer Engineering Wind scatterometry is the science of estimating speed and direction of near-surface ocean wind using radar measurements from satellite scatterometers. 1 Satellite scatterometers transmit microwave pulses to the ocean’s surface and record the power of the backscattered radiation. Estimates of ocean wind speed and […]

Ruth Bell and Dr. Doran Wilde, Electrical and Computer Engineering A number of approaches to constructing high performance recursive digital filters have been attempted. An approach using piplelined multiply-accumulate blocks in which computations are performed most significant digit (msd) first has demonstrated important benefits. A recent computer journal article describes 1 msd first multiply accumulation […]

Idris El Bakri and Dr. Richard H. Selfridge, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The project was an experimental and theoretical research effort to determine the effect of temperature on the birefringence of optical D fibers. Such fibers have a D shaped cross section, hence their name, and consist of a three major regions: the light guiding […]

Benjamin L. Bullough and Dr. Michael Wirthlin, Electrical and Computer Engineering Some of the most important application areas for integrated circuits are in portable communication and computing devices. Since batteries power these devices, power is only available in limited quantities. Optimizing for power allows engineers to produce designs, which extend battery life or use a […]

Tyrie Vella and Dr. Richard Selfridge, Electrical & Computer Engineering Main Text Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors are specialized optical fibers that can be used for detecting changes in strain. Under normal conditions, when a broadband spectrum of light is transmitted through the fiber, a narrow band of light is reflected by the sensor. When […]