Kristofer S.J. Pister (Advisor)

Creating a wireless tactile actuator the size of an aspirin will allow for more precise physical stimulation. This will lead to a more immersive virtual reality (VR) experience and better convey information via touch. Making this wireless tactile actuator can be accomplished by further utilizing the existing Si on Insulator (SOI) structure. Currently, a printed circuit board (PCB) is used for the sole purpose of assembly, however, further utilization of the Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) SOI structure can allow the chip to operate as both the actuator and housing package. In...

Crystal-Free radios are susceptible to frequency drifts due to temperature and voltage. Compensation for the frequency drift in the 2.4 GHz local oscillator due to voltage variation was demonstrated for a Crystal-Free radio while powered from a solar cell under 200 mW/cm2 of irradiation and a 0805 capacitor. Without compensation the local oscillator frequency would vary by 2.4 MHz while the 802.15.4 packets were transmitted resulting in a loss of 100B of the payload. With frequency drift compensation that oscillator frequency varied less than 300KHz and the full length 125B 802.15.4...

Jumping microrobots are a burgeoning area of autonomous microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). This dissertation presents background, theory, designs, and results of the first jumping microrobots fabricated in a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process using electrostatic inchworm motors etched into the device layer silicon and energy storing springs etched into the silicon substrate. Substrate silicon is much thicker than device layer silicon, and can therefore store a lot more mechanical energy per unit area than can device layer silicon. New high force density electrostatic inchworm motors...