Kristofer S.J. Pister (Advisor)

Research Advised by Professor Kristofer S.J. Pister

Pister Group:  List of Projects | List of Researchers

BPNX1035: Six-Axis Control of Electrostatically Levitated Mass

Yichen Liu
Daniel Lovell
Lawrence Rhee
Jacob Kwon
Damanic Luck
Emily Tan
Alexander Alvara
Hani Gomez
Daniel Teal
2026

This project focuses on the design, fabrication, and development of a six-axis electrostatically levitated mass system. While electrostatic levitation has been previously demonstrated, the emphasis here is on achieving a compact form factor (10 cm × 10 cm), reduced power consumption (0.5 W), and increased levitated mass capacity. The proof mass is suspended using a system of actuation electrodes: four top electrodes provide levitation and control of vertical displacement (z-axis) as well as rotation about the x- and y-axes, while six side electrodes control lateral motion (x- and y-...

Yichen Liu

Graduate Student Researcher
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Kristofer S.J. Pister (Advisor)
Ph.D. 2027 (Anticipated)
First-year Ph.D. student in EECS at UC Berkeley Concentration in MEMS The current project on locomotion controller design on micro-walker through reinforcement learning

BSAC Spring 2023 Research Review Presenter

BSAC Spring 2024 Research Review Presenter

BPN990: Anti-Drone Radar-Guided Micromissiles

Titan Yuan
Daniel Lovell
Carson Spoo
Cedric Murphy
Jenna Dickman
Asa Garner
Eric Yang
2026

Since drones can be flown remotely or autonomously and can navigate dangerous environments without any risk to human operators, they are attractive for military applications, including surveillance, reconnaissance, and combat missions. At the same time, enemy drones pose a growing serious threat to civilians and soldiers. Current anti-drone warfare is either inaccurate, expensive, or large in size, so this project aims to build a low-cost, crayon-sized radar-guided microrocket to target drones up to 100 meters away.

To effectively and tractably counter hundreds of threats, we...

BPN987: A VCO-based Precision Sensing Platform

Yu-Chi Lin
Daniel Lovell
Ali M. Niknejad
Kristofer S.J. Pister
2026

As artificial intelligence and edge computing industries continue to expand, there is a growing demand for adaptive wireless sensors capable of high-precision and low-power data acquisition. Recent studies in sensing interfaces have achieved uV-level precision with uW-level of power per channel. Among various architectures, VCO (voltage-controlled oscillator)-based structure draws attention due to its compact area and scalability with advanced technology nodes. However, inherent VCO nonidealities such as V-F nonlinearity and PVT variations, limit the maximal achievable SNDR and dynamic...

Alexander Alvara

Graduate Student Researcher
Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Liwei Lin (Advisor)
Professor Kristofer S.J. Pister (Advisor)
Ph.D. 2026

Alexander Alvara is a final year Ph.D. Candidate in mechanical engineering who earned his 3 BS degrees from UC Irvine '17 concurrently in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, and materials science and engineering. Alexander is interested in extreme conditions applications and performance of MEMS devices as well as nanoscale materials engineering that investigates the interplay of materials with electromagnetism and light.

Carson Spoo

Undergraduate Researcher
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Kristofer S.J. Pister (Advisor)
B.S. 2026

Yu-Chi Lin

Graduate Student Researcher
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Kristofer S.J. Pister (Advisor)
Ph.D. 2027 (Anticipated)

Yu-Chi Lin is a third-year Ph.D. student, working with Prof. Ali Niknejad and Prof. Kris Pister, at Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC) and Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (...

A System Supporting Tiny Networked Sensors

Jason Hill
David Culler
Kristofer S.J. Pister
2000

As the post-PC era emerges, several new niches of computer system design are taking shape with characteristics that are quite different from traditional desktop and server regimes. One of the most interesting of these new design regimes is networked sensors. The networked sensor is enabled, in part, by "Moore's Law" pushing computing and storage into a smaller, cheaper, lower-power unit. However, three other trends are equally important: complete systems on a chip, integrated low-power communication, and integrated low-power devices that interact with the physical world. The combination of...

Micromachined Resonators

Dubravka Bilić
Roger T. Howe
Kristofer S.J. Pister
Roberto Horowitz
2001

In this work, we present approaches of making a micromachined resonators and oscillators. In the first study, we investigated the effects of anchoring on the resonator's performance. Using the Analog Devices BiMEMS integrated technology, double-ended tuning fork resonators have been fabricated with on-chip circuitry. The results show an improvement in the resonator's quality factor when using anchors with multiple contacts to the substrate. Resonators with frequencies up to 3MHz were tested at µTorr pressures to give quality factors as high as 58,000.

In order to reduce...