Collaborateurs·trices

Educational activities

At Bachelor level:

• Mechatronics course (two terms, second year of study): introduction to electro-mechanics, sensors, signals and systems, feedback control.
• Electronics course (one term, third year of study): PLL, oscillators, noise, ADC and DAC, sampled systems, digital filters and controllers.

At Master level:

• Micro-positioning course (one term): components and system design aspects of mechanisms carrying out small displacements.
• Advanced Electronics Design course (10 weeks): operational amplifier architecture, interface circuits, ADC and DAC, in particular sigma-delta conversion technique.
• Hi-Rel Electronics course (10 weeks): tools for the reliability analysis of electronic systems, i.e. failure modes, parts stress, worst case, reliability prediction, test planning.
• Mechatronics course (one term): analysis, simulation and design of cinematics and dynamics of articulated mechanisms

Directed 30 Bachelor and 10 Master theses, co-reporter of 3 PhD theses at EPFL.

Current research

Engineering for metrology and instrumentation, where high resolution, good dynamic behavior and precision are key issues:

• Robust electronics for harsh environments, e.g. space flight, under-ground and environmental investigations.
• Active and passive noise reduction in electronic circuits. Auto-zeroing and double correlated sampling, application to sensing acquisition circuits.
• Measurement and digitization of slow signals (periods from seconds to days) and of small electrical quantities, in particular using lock-in techniques.
• Measurement and interpretation of the frequency response of impedances and transfer functions. Separation of different contributions to the impedance of a circuit.
• Signal processing and automatic control oriented towards hardware implementation, analog and digital. Adaptation of algorithms to hardware implementation.

Recent projects

• CPPS – Educational center for earthquake prevention (2013-2016)
  5m x 6m 3D earthquake simulator for public demonstrations and  non-structural component tests, small 1D and 2D shake tables and experiments.
• SCCER-SoE (phase 1, 2013-2016)
  "Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research – Supply of Electricity" is a national competence center to develop fundamental research and innovative solutions in the domains of GeoEnergies and HydroPower granted by the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI).
  > Harsh environment sensors for seismic borehole monitoring and water reservoir detection, first installation of deep borehole seismometer at Lavey-les-Bains end of 2016.
• IS-FEE and GRS-FEE (2005-2016)
  Design and test of position sensing front end circuits for inertial sensor of gravitational wave detector, flight electronics (12 A4 size electronic PCBs) successfully launched in 2015 within LISA technology package on LISA Pathfinder mission, currently operating at L1 point
• Several on-going instrument developments for environmental monitoring (2017-2020): 6d rock fall extensometer, electronic limnimeter for mountain rivers, bedload sensing in mountain rivers, autonomous lidar for 3d terrain monitoring, electric impedance soil tomography, sky camera for short term PV production prediction
• FlècheBike (2019-2020) : Fast charging technology for e-bike batteries 

Publications during the last eight years

Conference contributions (not reviewed)

• Monitoring of  Geothermal Energy Reservoirs, Ch. Cachelin, Ch. Praplan, S. Gallay, D. Berthousoz, E. Mabillard, J. Moerschell, SCCER-SoE Conf. 2019
• Mesures géophysiques autonomes et permanentes, Ch. Cachelin, Ch. Praplan, J. Moerschell,Journées de la recherche HES-SO 2018, Fribourg
• Développement d’un extensomètre 3D innovant pour la surveillance d’instabilités rocheuses, G. Emery, F. Baillifard, R. Mayoraz, J. Moerschell, Journées biennales de géosciences et de sciences de l’environnement, Lausanne, 2018
• Surveillance du manteau neigeux et de l'humidité du sol par mesures électriques 
  Carrupt A., Ganchinho A., Moerschell J.
  Journée Biennales des Géosciences et de l'Environnement, UNIL, Lausanne, Suisse
• LiDAR autonome pour la surveillance de terrains 
  Stephan M., Laros J., da Rocha J., Luginbühl F., Romanowicz K., Steiner A., Moerschell J., Draeyer B.
  Journée Biennales des Géosciences et de l'Environnement, UNIL, Lausanne, Suisse
• Limnimeter for Mountain Streams 
  Bardou E., Cachelin Ch., Emery G., Moerschell J., Travaglini E.
  SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
• SismoRiv: an innovative system for bedload monitoring based on the measurement of seismic noise through river banks 
  Mayencourt L., Moerschell J., Travaglini E., Ornstein P., Schneider T.
  SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
• PiezoEel: an Energy Harvester for Mountain Stream Monitoring 
  Emery G., Keppner H., Moerschell J., Münch-Alligné C., Rapillard L., Richard S.
  SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
• Extending Geophone Sensitivity for Induced Seismicity Recording 
  Praplan Ch., Moerschell J.
  SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
• Deep Borehole Seismometer Demonstrator 
  Praplan Ch., Cachelin Ch., Moerschell J.
  SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
• Detecting Water through Electric Impedance Measurements 
  Emery G., Ganchinho A., Moerschell J.
  SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
• Deep Borehole Seismometer
  Praplan Ch., Cachelin Ch., Ravedoni Y., Moerschell J.
  SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2015, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, September 10-11, 2015
• Mesures FRA en ligne
  Moerschell J.
  FKH Fachtagung, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, December 5, 2012
• Monitoring by on-line Impedance Spectroscopy
  Friedli D., Cuenin Y., Praplan B., J. Moerschell J.
  Powertage, Zürich, Switzerland, Juni 12-14, 2012

Research reports (not reviewed)

• Essais des vibrations générées par un simulateur de séismes
  Moerschell J., Vaccari A., Rapillard L., HES-SO Valais-Wallis, 2014
• LISA Gravitational Reference Sensor Front End Electronics Breadboard Design Report
  Moerschell J., Praplan Ch., ESA, 2013
• On-line Generator Monitoring
  Moerschell J., Ganchinho A., Cuenin Y., Rapport final, HES-SO, 2013
• Micro Electro-biological System
  Moerschell J., Ganchinho A., Rapport final, HES-SO, 2012
• Picoamperemeter
  Moerschell J., Castellaro Ch., Rapport scientifique, HES-SO, 2012