Albert P. Pisano (Advisor)

Two self-aligend plastic deformation processes are devleoped to fabricate silicon microstructures, including angular vertical comb-drives, scanning micromirrors, variable capacitors, and two-axial actuators based on global-furnace and localized-Joule heating methods. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, an ultrasonic packaging procedure that generates local plastic deformation of metallic bonding materials is also established for MEMS packaging applications.

Plastic defomation of silicon occurs at elevated temperature when silicon is stresses to a level higher than the reduced yield...

New approaches for drug delivery seek to enable improved patient comfort as well as to provide an improved level of care. New approaches are especially important for drugs that cannot be administered orally. Liquid and lyophilized drugs can be delivered under the stratum corneum because of rapid diffusion of the drug into the capillary bed under the skin.

For this purpose, a syringe has been developed and fabricated using microfabrication to make an array of hollow, out-of-plane silicon needles using a combination of DRIE and isotropic etching. The needles have a typical height of...