I would like to first and foremost thank my wife for all her support and understanding during the entire duration of my doctoral degree. Without her support and encouragement this degree would not have been possible. I would also like to specially thank both Dr. Venkat Devarajan and Dr. John Mills for their guidance, advice and support through the course of research work. I also need to express gratitude towards my esteemed dissertation committee Dr. Lawrence, Dr. Subbarao, Dr. Agonafer and Dr. Dogan for their inputs. Gratitude is also due to Dr. Ram Sriram of NIST for his inputs on the dissertation documentation. I would also like to thank Aditya Deshmukh and Dr. Sunil Belligundu for the help they provided with the design rationale capture...