Albert P. Pisano (Advisor)

Characterization of Low-Fluence Excimer Laser Annealing of AlN Thin Films

David Park
Albert P. Pisano
2005

A process for laser annealing aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films with a low-fluence excimer laser has been characterized. Residual stress inherited during film deposition can cause undesirable effects, such as delamination and cracking, in MEMS devices. Current methods of furnace annealing require 30 minutes or longer, but laser annealing can reduce this anneal time down to less than 1 minute. This makes laser annealing a valuable time saving tool in the fabrication process of MEMS devices.

The laser used in this study was a 40 ns KrF excimer laser with a 248 nm...

Pressure Driven Microflow Through a Double-T Metering Section

Luke Hunter
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
2003

Many assay devices require metering a calibrated amount of sample foranalysis. As mobile/handheld assay devices become closer to realization, power usage becomes more critical for all system components. Current designs utilize electrokinetically driven flow and well-defined channel geome...

Parametric Design and Characterization of Linear Microvibromotors

Roger Hipwell
Albert P. Pisano
Richard S. Muller
Oliver M. O'Reilly
1997

Resonant microactuators, such as electrostatic combdrives, have proven useful for many small amplitude actuation applications. However, there are a number of micropositioning applications that require a significantly larger travel range than the 10 pm typically achieved by electrostatic combdrives. In addition,...

Microfluid Integrated Nano-Scale Biological Cell Probes

Jesse Herrick
Albert P. Pisano
Luke P. Lee
Lydia L. Sohn
2004

Standard techniques for biological research have proven extremely informative in the past, and will most likely see a continued use in years to come. However, with the correct implementation of some of todays leading technologies on the micro and nano scale, biological research could potentially see extraordinary advances in the...

Position Sensing for Electrostatic Micropositioners

Naiyavudhi Wongkomet
Bernhard E. Boser
Paul R. Gray
Albert A. Pisano
1998
This research investigates the design of capacitive position sensing circuits for electrostatic micropositioners. The goals of this investigation are to understand the interaction among the micropositioners, the driving circuits, and the position sensing ...

Micromachined Plastic Millimeter-wave Radar Components

Firas Sammoura
Liwei Lin
Albert P. Pisano
Andrew Neureuther
2006
This research aims to develop plastic millimeter-wave components, including waveguides, tunable filters, phase shifters and antennas, toward the low-cost, batch fabrication for integrated systems for applications such as all-weather automotive and airplane landing radars. The key micromachining processes developed in this work include micro hot embossing, electroplating, polishing and bonding and as a proof of concept demonstration, micro injection molding of...

Integrated MEMS Tuning Fork Oscillators for Sensor Applications

Trey Roessig
Albert P. Pisano
Kameshwar Poolla
Roger T. Howe
1998
In this work, issues involved in the design resonant sensors in a surface- micromachined fabrication technology are investigated. The goal of this work is to describe the important considerations in each portion of the sensor design, including the ...

Surface Micromachined Resonant Force Transducers

Trey Roessig
Albert P. Pisano
George C. Johnson
Lisa Pruitt
1995

This report covers a transduction scheme using surface micromachined tuning forks to measure small forces. This resonant sensing is done by applying an axial force to the tuning fork and measuring the resulting shift in natural frequency. The analysis of the tuning forks is carried ...

Micro Accelerometer Design with Digital Feedback Control

Mark Lemkin
David M. Auslander
Bernhard E. Boser
Albert P. Pisano
1997
In this work, design of capacitive accelerometers with CMOS electronics is investigated. The goal of this investigation is to form accurate behavioral models at three different levels of abstraction: system, electrical, and mechanical. Analysis of these models permits a deeper understanding of both accelerometer design and design trade-offs. The results of this work are used to obtain an accurate prediction of accelerometer performance. At the system level, simultaneous force-balancing and analog-to-digital...

Lab-on-a-Chip Mechanical and Optical Components

Nikolas Chronis
Luke P. Lee
Lisa Pruitt
Albert P. Pisano
Richard S. Muller
2004
The present work aims to provide new tools for the manipulation and detection of biological samples. They can be envisioned as individual components of an integrated, lab-on-a-chip system. A novel SU-8 microgripper is introduced for the manipulation of single cells or other biological species in solution with minimal undesired interactions. The electrothermally activated polymer gripper consists of two SU-8 ‘hot-and-cold-arm’ actuators that are fabricated in a two-mask...