• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2004.07a
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• pp.341-345
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• 2004

A high efficiency and low device stress voltage and current clamping BVS PWM asymmetrical half bridge converter is proposed in this paper. To achieve the ZVS of power switches along the wide load range, the transformer leakage inductor $L_{Ikg}$ is increased. Then, to solve the problem related to ringing in the secondary rectifier caused by the resonance between $L_{Ikg}$ and rectifier junction capacitors, the proposed converter employs a voltage and current clamping cell, which helps voltages and currents of rectifier diodes to be clamped at the output voltage and output current, respectively. Therefore, no RC-snubber for rectifier diodes is needed and a high efficiency as well as low noise output voltage can be realized. In addition, since all energy stored in $L_{Ikg}$ is transferred to the output side, the circulating energy problem can be effectively solved and duty loss does net exist. The operational principle, theoretical analysis, and design considerations are presented. To confirm the operation, validity, and features of the proposed circuit, experimental results from a 425W, 385-170Vdc prototype are presented.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2007

Wimedia UWB(Ultra-Wideband) platform provides data rates up to 480Mbps in WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network). Wimedia conformant devices access to the channels through superframe concept for communications. As the channel resource is limited, the optimal channel time required for each device needs to be estimated to share the resource efficiently among the devices. In this paper, we propose a scheme to estimate the required channel time in a super frame to satisfy the QoS of the application on a device. The channel time is estimated from the service rate which is computed from the TSPEC of the application. In the process of the estimation, we take the frame overhead for data transmission as well as the overhead due to the acknowledgement scheme, preamble, and MDSU size into consideration. We also analyze and compare the throughputs for different acknowledgement scheme, preamble, and MDSU size situations. The estimated channel time required for a given service rate is allocated in the unit of MAS(Medium Access Slot).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1087-1091
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• 2005

Four-probe device of single ZnO nanowire was fabricated by electron beam lithography. Electrical characterizations in a two-probe and a four-probe configuration with a back-gate were carried out to clarify the relative contribution of the contact and the intrinsic part in a ZnO nanowire. I-V characteristic in four-probe measurement showed an ohmic behavior with a high conductivity, 100 S/cm, which was better than those of two-probe measurement by 10 times. At the same values of the current between two-probe and four-probe, the net voltage applied inside the nanowire were extracted with calculated voltages at the contact. Four-probe current-gate voltage characteristics showed bigger tendencies than those of two-probe measurement at low temperatures, indicating the reduced gate dependence in two-Probe measurements by the existence of the contact resistance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.439-450
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• 2008

The KSTAR device succeeded in first plasma generation on $13^{th}$ June of 2008 through comprehensive system test and commissioning. Among various kinds of the key factors that decisively affected the project, success in the construction and assembly of the major tokamak structure was most important one. Every engineering aspects of each structure were finally confirmed in the integrated commissioning period, and there were no severe troubles and failures prevented the KSTAR device from operating during the commissioning and the first plasma experiments. As a result, all of the experiences and technologies achieved through the KSTAR construction process are expected to be important fundamentals for future construction projects of superconducting fusion devices. This paper summarizes key engineering features of the major structures and of the machine assembly.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.697-708
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• 2012

The majority of instrumentation and control (I&C) systems in today's nuclear power plants (NPPs) are based on analog technology. Thus, most existing I&C systems now face obsolescence problems. Existing NPPs have difficulty in repairing and replacing devices and boards during maintenance because manufacturers no longer produce the analog devices and boards used in the implemented I&C systems. Therefore, existing NPPs are replacing the obsolete analog I&C systems with advanced digital systems. New NPPs are also adopting digital I&C systems because the economic efficiencies and usability of the systems are higher than the analog I&C systems. Digital I&C systems are based on two technologies: a microprocessor based system in which software programs manage the required functions and a programmable logic device (PLD) based system in which programmable logic devices, such as field programmable gate arrays, manage the required functions. PLD based systems provide higher levels of performance compared with microprocessor based systems because PLD systems can process the data in parallel while microprocessor based systems process the data sequentially. In this research, a bistable trip logic in a reactor protection system (RPS) was developed using very high speed integrated circuits hardware description language (VHDL), which is a hardware description language used in electronic design to describe the behavior of the digital system. Functional verifications were also performed in order to verify that the bistable trip logic was designed correctly and satisfied the required specifications. For the functional verification, a random testing technique was adopted to generate test inputs for the bistable trip logic.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.225-234
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• 2014

Wall-thinned defects caused by accelerated corrosion due to fluid flow in the inner pipe appear in many structures of the secondary systems in nuclear power plants (NPPs) and are a major factor in degrading the integrity of pipes. Wall-thinned defects need to be managed not only when the NPP is under maintenance but also when the NPP is in normal operation. To this end, a test technique was developed in this study to detect such wall-thinned defects based on the temperature difference on the surface of a hot pipe using infrared (IR) thermography and a cooling device. Finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted to examine the tendency and experimental conditions for the cooling experiment. Based on the FEA results, the equipment was configured before the cooling experiment was conducted. The IR camera was then used to detect defects in the inner pipe of the pipe specimen that had artificially induced defects. The IR thermography developed in this study is expected to help resolve the issues related to the limitations of non-destructive inspection techniques that are currently conducted for NPP secondary systems and is expected to be very useful on the NPPs site.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.209-215
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• 2017

Fast neutron irradiation was used to improve the switching speed of a 600-V nonpunch-through insulated gate bipolar transistor. Fast neutron irradiation was carried out at 30-MeV energy in doses of $1{\times}10^8n/cm^2$, $1{\times}10^9n/cm^2$, $1{\times}10^{10}n/cm^2$, and $1{\times}10^{11}n/cm^2$. Electrical characteristics such as current-voltage, forward on-state voltage drop, and switching speed of the device were analyzed and compared with those prior to irradiation. The on-state voltage drop of the initial devices prior to irradiation was 2.08 V, which increased to 2.10 V, 2.20 V, 2.3 V, and 2.4 V, respectively, depending on the irradiation dose. This effect arises because of the lattice defects generated by the fast neutrons. In particular, the turnoff delay time was reduced to 92 nanoseconds, 45% of that prior to irradiation, which means there is a substantial improvement in the switching speed of the device.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.733-739
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• 2004

As per the recent technology related to safety of vehicles, Active safety system is being developed in combination withthe technology of electronic system. For example, ABC(Active Body Control), ABS(Antilock Brake System), ACC(Adaptive Cruise Control) are representative of this system. This technology is based on an electronic system, and shares a lot of data through network-system invehicles. Therefore, the control-algorism and the practicable application are realized in this research in order that CAN, network system for vehicles can run the brake device, which is composed mechanically and hand-operated. Additionally the possibility is confirmed that this control-system can be compatible with the existing electronic system in vehicles.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.299-312
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• 2007

The program on thermal-hydraulic evaluation by testing and analysis (THETA) for the development and licensing of the new design features in the APR1400 (Advanced Power Reactor-1400) is briefly introduced with a presentation on the research motivation and typical results of the separate effect tests and analyses of the major design features. The first part deals with multi-dimensional phenomena related to the safety analysis of the APR1400. One research area is related to the multidimensional behavior of the safety injection (SI) water in a reactor pressure vessel downcomer that uses a direct vessel injection type of SI system. The other area is associated with the condensation of steam jets and the resultant thermal mixing in a water pool; these phenomena are relevant to the depressurization of a reactor coolant system (RCS). The second part describes our efforts to develop new components for safety enhancements, such as a fluidic device as a passive SI flow controller and a sparger to depressurize the RCS. This work contributes to an understanding of the new thermal-hydraulic phenomena that are relevant to advanced reactor system designs; it also improves the prediction capabilities of analysis tools for multi-dimensional flow behavior, especially in complicated geometries.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.510-517
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• 2019

Increasing proliferation resistance of plutonium by way of increased $^{238}Pu$ content is of interest to the nuclear nonproliferation and international safeguards community. Considering the high alpha decay heat of $^{238}Pu$, increasing the isotopic fraction leads to a noticeably higher amount of heat generation within the plutonium. High heat generation is especially unattractive in the scenario of weaponization. Upon weaponization of the plutonium, the plutonium may generate enough heat to elevate the temperature in the high explosives to above its self-explosion temperature, rendering the weapon useless. In addition, elevated temperatures will cause thermal expansion in the components of a nuclear explosive device that may produce thermal stresses high enough to produce failure in the materials, reducing the effectiveness of the weapon. Understanding the technical limit of $^{238}Pu$ required to reduce the possibility of weaponization is key to reducing the current limit on safeguarded plutonium (greater than 80 at. % $^{238}Pu$). The plutonium vector evaluated in this study was found by simulating public information on Lightbridge's fuel design for pressurized water reactors. This study explores the temperature profile and maximum stress within a simple (first generation design) hypothetical nuclear explosive device of four unique scenarios over time. Analyzing the transient development of both the temperature profile and maximum stress not only establishes a technical limit on the $^{238}Pu$ content, but also establishes a time limit for which each scenario would be useable.