Date of Award

5-9-2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Department

Electrical Engineering

First Advisor

Hudson, Tina

Second Advisor

Doering, Ed

Third Advisor

Mellor, JP

Abstract

A system was designed and implemented that combined the distribution of high-current power with a digital control signal over a common conductor. Two different versions of this system were implemented. Initially, a design based on of commercially available parts was created and tested to prove that the concept of combining communications and power is valid. The resulting design was then miniaturized to show that the system might be combined onto a single integrated circuit. In the miniaturization process, some circuit blocks were redesigned to take advantage of the flexibility provided by ASIC designs. Both the proof of concept and the VLSI implementations were completely designed, implemented, and fully tested. It was shown that the system can be miniaturized. The miniaturization provided the advantages of smaller overall implementation size and higher reliability due to decreased part count. The disadvantage of the miniaturization process was that the design became fixed once it was fabricated in silicon.

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