Physical Sensors & Devices

Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics can revolutionize current medicine by enabling rapid, at-home molecular testing for early disease detection and treatment monitoring. Though several mainstream POC technologies exist, such as paper-based lateral flow assays (LFAs) and microfluidic cartridges, they either lack quantification capability or require a dedicated reader for electrical readout. Miniaturization enabled by high-performance CMOS integrated circuits (ICs) has been proposed to address these limitations, but complex CMOS/microfluidics packaging due to the need for electrical connections...

We have used PMUTs for 3D imaging. based on a 4×4 bimorph, pinned dual-electrode PMUTs array with the transmission beamforming scheme. This project advances the ultrasound-based imaging technique by using the compressed sensing scheme. The goal is to achieve 3D imaging with a low number of transducers and minimum computation for various applications in robotics, wearable electronics, autonomous navigation, and medical diagnostics.

Project is currently funded by: Member Fees

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of persistent synthetic compounds, often called “forever chemicals,” that pose a significant threat to public health and the environment. Standard detection methods primarily rely on liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry [1], which is expensive, time-intensive, and requires trained personnel and laboratory infrastructure. While emerging approaches using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), molecularly imprinted polymers, and lateral flow assays have been explored, they have yet to provide a solution that simultaneously offers part-...

Acoustic transducers are essential for object localization and environmental sensing. Conventional transducers rely on piezoelectric crystals, whose acoustic-electric response is fixed by the crystal lattice's inherent asymmetry and orientation. This results in static coupling behavior, necessitating bulky arrays of rigid elements with complex wiring and high computational demands for directional sensing. Here, we report a fundamentally new class of acoustic-electric coupling that emerges from topology-governed charge transport in 3D micro-architected piezoelectric metamaterials. Unlike...