Albert P. Pisano (Advisor)

MEMS Microbial Fuel Cells and Photosynthetic Electrochemical Cells

Kien-Bang Lam
Liwei Lin
Albert P. Pisano
Kevin E. Healy
2005
In this dissertation, we present three MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical Systems) biological electrochemical cells: (1) a microbial fuel cell (μMFC) utilizing glucose as the bio-fuel and live baker’s yeast as the bio-catalyst; (2) a photosynthetic electrochemical cell (μPEC1) based on unicellular bacteria Anabaena as the biological photo-electrical converter; and (3) a second photosynthetic electrochemical cell (μPEC2)...

Electromagnetic Generators for Portable Power Applications

Matthew Kurt Senesky
Seth R. Sanders
Albert P. Pisano
Dennis K. Lieu
2005
The power source that is common to almost all electrically powered portable devices— the electrochemical battery — has failed to shrink at the same rate as circuits and sensors. While this growing disparity has been partially mitigated by the decreasing power requirements of many electronic circuits, the size and weight of portable electronic devices are increasingly dominated by electrochemical batteries. An obvious set of candidates for energy storage with...

Silicon Processed Microstructures Using Self-Aligned Plastic Deformation

Jongbaeg Kim
Liwei Lin
Albert P. Pisano
Luke P. Lee
2004

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...

Piezoelectric Aluminum Nitride Vibrating RF MEMS for Radio Front-End Technology

Gianluca Piazza
Albert P. Pisano
Roger T. Howe
Liwei Lin
Kristofer S.J. Pister
2005
The demand of consumer electronics for RF filters and frequency reference elements has focused attention on the reduction of size, power consumption and price and pushed current research interests towards the manufacturing of a single-chip, integrated RF solution. Vibrating contour-mode MEMS resonators constitute the most promising technology for ultimately realizing this vision. This dissertation presents analytical and experimental results on a new class...

Localized Synthesis, Assembly and Integration of Silicon Nanowires

Ongi Englander
Liwei Lin
Albert P. Pisano
Oscar D. Dubon
2005
Localized synthesis, assembly and integration of one-dimensional silicon nanowires with MEMS structures is demonstrated and characterized in terms of local synthesis processes, electric-field assisted self-assembly, and a proof-of-concept nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) demonstration. Emphasis is placed on the ease of integration, process control strategies, characterization techniques and the pursuit of integrated devices. A top-down followed by a...

Microfabricated Electrostatic Actuators for Magnetic Disk Drives

David A. Horsley
Albert P. Pisano
Roberto Horowitz
Roger T. Howe
1998
This dissertation describes microfabricated electrostatic actuators which have been designed to serve as the secondary actuator in a dual-stage servo system for magnetic hard disk drives. Both translational and rotational designs are presented, each of which consists of a flexurally suspended ...

An Integrated MEMS Syringe for Advanced Drug Delivery: Design, Fabrication and Fluid Mechanics of Suspension Flow through Microneedle Arrays

Boris Stoeber
Dorian Liepmann
Albert P. Pisano
Luke P. Lee
2002

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...

Miniature-Scale and Micro-Scale Rotary Internal Combustion Engines for Portable Power Systems

Kelvin Fu
A. Carlos Fernandez-Pello
Albert P. Pisano
Kristofer J. Pister
Dorian Liepmann
2001

This work describes the development of both miniature-scale and micro-scale rotary internal combustion engines. This work is part of a project to develop a portable, high specific energy, liquid hydrocarbon-fueled power supply. A Wankel-type rotary engine was chosen for development because of its self-valving operation, planar geometry, and the ability to extract either mechanical or electrical power. To investigate engine behavior and design issues, larger-scale "mini-rotary'' engines have been fabricated from 4 steel. Mini-rotary engine chambers are approximately 1000 mm3 to 1 700 mm3 in...

Continuous Microfluidic Mixing Using Pulsatile Micropumps

Ajay Anil Deshmukh
Dorian Liepmann
Albert P. Pisano
Luke P. Lee
2001
Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the field of microfluidics. Many possible applications exist for low cost, portable fluidic systems; examples include drug delivery devices, chemical reactors, and DNA sequencers. In many of these systems, the thorough mixing of small amounts of two or more fluids will be required. While it may at first seem that diffusion will be sufficient to quickly mix fluids in a sub-millimeter scale channel, this is often not the case. To meet this need, a new mixing process for...