Albert P. Pisano (Advisor)

Porous and Epitaxial 3C-SiC Thin Films Technology for Micro-electromechanical Systems and Electronics Applications

Wei-Cheng Lien
Roya Maboudian
David B. Graves
Albert P. Pisano
Tsu-Jae King Liu
2008
Silicon is a widely used semiconductor material because of such factors as its high quality, stable oxide, and low cost. However, silicon-based microdevices are not suitable for harsh environments, such as high temperature, intense vibrations, erosive flows, and corrosive media, because the electric properties of silicon degrades above 250 ̊C and mechanical properties degrades above 600 ̊C. Silicon carbide is a suitable material for harsh...

Rapid Synthesis of One-Dimensional Nanostructures via Induction Heating

Brian David Sosnowchik
Liwei Lin
Albert P. Pisano
Ming C. Wu
2008
This work presents the development of a platform technology for the rapid synthesis of a wide range of onedimensional nanostructures using induction heating. The technique is fast, enabling the synthesis of nanostructures in as short as one minute, simple, clean, and scalable. The technique is also versatile, enabling the synthesis of nanostructures in bulk or locally on MEMS, and may open up a new class of rapid nanostructure synthesis. The...

Optofluidic Devices for Cell, Microparticle, and Nanoparticle Manipulation

Aaron Takami Ohta
Ming C. Wu
Constance Chang-Hasnain
Albert P. Pisano
Kevin Healy
2008
Research in the micro- to nanoscale regimes is facilitated by technologies that enable the addressing of these tiny particles. In biological research, manipulation enables the study of single-cell behavior, as well as the sorting of specific target cells from a mixed population. In engineering applications, micro- and nanoparticles can be assembled to form electronic and optoelectronic devices. Several types of forces can be used to manipulate micro- and...

On-Chip Thin Film Encapsulation Development Utilizing Porous Anodic Alumina Shell

Nicolas Ferrier
Albert P. Pisano
2010

The encapsulation of a MEMS device constitutes one of the last but not least step of its fabrication process from the point of view of the numerous requirements that the package has to fulfill as well as the high costs it encounters. To sort out this issue, the thin film encapsulation technique has shown interesting results for many years now and constitutes a cheap and easy solution. An improvement of this method in...

MEMS Aluminum Nitride Technology for Inertial Sensors

Gabriele Vigevani
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
Ming C. Wu
2011
The design and fabrication of MEMS Inertial Sensors (both accelerometers and gyro-scopes) made of Aluminum Nitride (AlN) is described in this dissertation. The goal of this work is to design and fabricate inertial sensors based on c-axis oriented AlN polycrystalline thin films. AlN is a post-CMOS compatible piezoelectric material widely used for acoustic resonators, such Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) and Lamb Wave Resonators(LWR). In this work we develop the design techniques necessary to obtain inertial sensors...

Microscale Phase Change of Fuels for MEMS Power Applications

Brenda Haendler
Albert P. Pisano
Dorian Liepmann
Daniel M. Kammen
2006
As portable electronics technology advances, systems are becoming smaller and more energy intensive. While batteries are currently the only commercial power source for these applications, work is being done to create liquid fuel based portable power packs. These systems would leverage the higher energy density (W-hr/l) and specific energy (W-hr/kg) of liquid hydrocarbon fuels over available battery chemistries. For micro engines and small fuels cells there are advantages to preheating and vaporizing the fuel ...

Monolithic Piezoelectrically-Actuated MEMS-Tunable VCSEL

Kan Bun Cheng
Albert P. Pisano
Ming C. Wu
2006
Recently there has been intense research in the field of tunable VCSELs due to the increasing needs of all-optical communications. Tunable lasers can provide low-cost and compact solutions for signal routing and switching in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks. It is believed that tunable lasers will play a pivotal role in advancing intelligent optical communications, with applications in all-optical switching as well as other...

Micro-Columnated Loop Heat Pipe: The Future of Electronic Substrates

Navdeep Singh Dhillon
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
Omer Savas ̧
Ali Javey
2012
The modern world is run by semiconductor-based electronic systems. Due to continuous improvements in semiconductor device fabrication, there is a clear trend in the market towards the development of electronic devices and components that not only deliver enhanced computing power, but are also more compact. Thermal management has emerged as the primary challenge in this scenario where heat flux dissipation of electronic chips is increasing exponentially, but conventional cooling solutions such as conduction and...

MEMS Liquid Fuel Delivery for Small-Scale Combustion Power Systems

Sang-Won Park
Albert P. Pisano
Carlos Fernandez-Pello
Andrew R. Neureuther
2008
The lack of a compact and efficient power source, spanning the range from10Watts to 1,000Watts, limits the mobility and usage time of personal devicesThis research has explored CommerciallyOffTheShelf (COTS) and Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) based fuel delivery systems to improve the combustion...

MEMS Hydrogel Sensors for pH and Glucose Measurements

Supone Manakasettharn
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
2008
A new formulation of a pHand a glucoseresponsive hydrogel was developed and then integrated into an interdigitated MEMS sensor. This new hydrogel was characterized for swelling response as well as for impedance response (resistance and capacitance) when used as both a pH and a glucose sensor. The standard pHresponsive hydrogel, which was a copolymer of 2hydroxyethyl methacrylate and...