Tungsten oxide (WO3) is a transition metal oxide with a wide range of applications such as displays, rear-view mirrors, electrochromic (EC) smart windows and gas sensors. Many techniques were adopted for the fabrication of WO3, namely magnetron sputtering, spray pyrolysis and sol-gel synthesis techniques. In this work, WO3films were deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glasses by sol-gel spin-coating method. The film thickness was varied by depositing different number of layers. The WO3film thickness and optical transmittance were determined using step profilometer and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer, respectively. WO3film thicknesses increased from 38 nm to 606 nmwith increasing number of deposited layers.The optical transmittance of the WO3films in visible range decreased with increasing film thickness. The optical transmittance were at least 70 % up to 10 deposited layers.WO3is a promising EC material in the application ofEC devices (ECDs).The application of WO3in the EC devices will be discussed.

Ice jam initiation by a simple partial su~face obstruction in a channel was studied experimentally inlaboratory fluniesusingpolyethylene, paraffin, as well asreal ice parallelepipeds, as model ice floes. The important dependent parameter under study was the critical s u~f x e concentration of floes at the gap in the surface obstruction at which floes would form a stable arch across the gap and an icejam would be initiated. Thiscritical floe concentration C, " was found to be independent of the ratio of gap width to flume width and to be a decreasing power function of the ratio of floe size to gap width. In addition C," was found to be independent of the approach flow Froude number for flow velocity less than the critical submergence velocity of an ice floe, for artificial model floes, but to increase with increasing Froude number when real ice floes were used. This difference and other quantitatively different results depending on whether natural ice blocks o r plastic blocks wel-e used as model ice floes were lentatively attributed to differences in floe materinlcharacte~.istics, mainly intel-particle friction force and su~face tension property, the latter affecting significantly the critical submergence velocity of thin plastic blocks ascompared to that of natul-al ice floes of the same size and density.On presente les rCsultatsd'uneetude en laboratoire du processusde Cormation d'un emblcledil A une obstruction supe~ficielle partielle dans un canal hydraulique. Le parnnktre caractCristique est laconcentration de glqonsdans le passage au droit de I'obstacle oil les glaqons s'accumulent par effet d'arc-boutement pour former un embide. On a determine que cette concentration critique, C,":, Ctait independante du ~xpport entre la largeur de I'ouverture et Ialargeul-du canal, et etait unefonctionde p~~issancedCcroissantedu rapport entre lat;iilledesgla~onset lalargeurde I'ouverture. De plus. C," s'est revel6 independant du nombre de Froude de I'ecoulernent amont clans les essais rialises avec cles "glqons" artificiels, mais il est par ailleui-s une fonction croissante du non~bre de Froude dans les essais rCalises avec de vl-ais g l a~o n s .Cette difference ainsique d'autres variations dans les resultatsobtenus suivant qtle lesglqons ont 6te sirnul6s par des blocs de plastique ou de glace sont attribuees. du rnoins tempolairement, aux differences entre les propriites physiques du plnstique et de laglace, telles les forces de frottement interparticulaires et les proprietes de tension supe~ficielle. Cette derniere propritte peut en pal-ticulier iyxndement affectes la vitesse d'inmersion d'un bloc mince de plastique par rapport B celle d'un glaqon de mernes dimensions et densite.

Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film is an active smart film penetrating the market due to its unique functionalities. These functional characteristics include switchable tint capabilities, which shield building residents from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays, improve energy-saving features, and produce higher cost-efficiency. Although PDLC films are promising in several applications, there is still ambiguity on the performance of PDLC films. Particularly, the sizing effects’ (such as film thickness and area) correlation with visible light transmission (VLT), ultraviolet rejection (UVR), infrared rejection (IRR), light intensity, current consumption, and apparent power consumption is not well understood. Therefore, this study investigated the sizing effects of PDLC films, including the thickness effect on VLT, UVR, IRR, light intensity, and area influence on current and apparent power consumptions. The varying applied voltage effect on the light transmittance of the PDLC film was also effectively demonstrated. A 0.1 mm PDLC film was successfully presented as a cost-efficient film with optimal parameters. Consequently, this study paves the way for a clearer understanding of PDLC films (behavior and sizing effects) in implementing economic PDLC films for large-scale adoption in commercial and residential premises.

A low power Bandgap Voltage Reference (BGR) is designed to supply a voltage reference for a low voltage Low-Dropout Regulator (LDO). This bandgap design consists of a bandgap core circuit, an output stage and a start-up circuit. The output of the bandgap adopted sub-1V voltage reference through the output stage circuit. The bandgap is simulated using 0.13 μm CMOS process. This BGR circuit provides voltage reference of 64mV± 1mV over-25°C to 120°C temperature range. The power supply of this BGR circuit is 1.20 V and the total current is 20 μA, thus resulting a low total power consumption of 24μW. The total layout area for this bandgap design is 66μm × 100μm.

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