The purpose of this design project was to design, simulate and build an Ultrasonic Range Finder in a group with four other students, by working together online. The device was expected to digitally measure an object's distance from the transducers, displaying the distance using two LED displays. The range for measuring the distance was to be between 0-99cm. An Ultrasonic Range Finder is able to measure the distance of an object through converting the time travelled by the ultrasonic sound waves into a measurable distance. Two transducers were used in the design of this device in order to emit and receive the ultrasonic sound waves. The emitted sound wave from the first transducer was expected to come into contact with an object that would then return the sound wave to be received by the second transducer. The key results of this experiment was that the Ultrasonic Range Finder that was built was not functional.

Every component of the design was functional other than the R-S Flip Flop (latch) that was used to determine the time of flight of the ultrasonic wave, which is the difference in time from when the timer starts and the Op Amp output occurs. The latch inputs were both 1, which is a forbidden input and lead to no output from the latch. In order to create a working design a different latch should be considered. A D Flip-Flop would be a suitable replacement as it would remedy the error that occurs when the input of the RS Flip-Flop is an equivalent input. The D Flip-flop makes it so that the inputs of the R and S of the flip flop are never the same at a given time. This latch is constructed from an RS Flip-Flop with an inverter between the R and S inputs. This inverter allows for a Data input, which gives the latch its name.

It was challenging to work on an online setting to design and build such a complex circuit, and I am incredibly proud of my team and I for managing to work through technical difficulties. We had spent a month working on this project and learned a lot about circuit design and building circuits throughout the entire process!

This design project required students to create an optimization of a material using the software FlexPDE. I had chosen to optimize the thickness of a Photovoltaic Solar Panel for optimal efficiency. In my design, the solar panels efficiency was dependent on the temperature constraint. In FlexPDE, the solar panel was modelled as a single silicon material in 2D with a width and thickness as well as a glass sheet on top. Although a commercial solar panel is made up of around 72 photovoltaic cells, it would be difficult to fully model that in FlexPDE, and so the design was simplified. Several assumptions were made throughout this design and the result of the optimization was that the minimum thickness of a solar panel is as follows:

The optimal thickness was found within 1% of the maximum efficient temperature of a solar panel, as a solar panel can be efficient within a much larger range, however its most efficient between 15°C -35°C. The optimal thickness reported is very precise and although it is accurate, manufacturers may find it suitable to choose a solar panel with a minimum thickness of 0.049m to ensure it is cost efficient and energy efficient. These results correlate to the thickness range in which solar panels are actually produced. Solar panels are produced within the thickness range of 38 - 51 mm (9), and 49mm is within that range. This means that this design optimization would be feasible and effective.

This project was not the most accurate as several design assumptions needed to be made in order to use the FlexPDE software. Overall I gained a greater understanding of solar panels and was able to code in Python and FlexPDE in order to find my results.