Liwei Lin (Advisor)

Research Advised by Professor Liwei Lin

Lin Group:  List of Projects | List of Researchers

LWL25: Plastic 3-D W-band Antenna Array

Mike Fuh
2009

The goal of this project is to make low-cost, low power, and reconfigurable electromagnetic-wave beam-formers for potential W-band applications such as car collision avoidance radar, wireless local network (LAN), and radio links. The beam-forming is realized by phased antenna array. This research project responds to the need for complete system-level integration of RF or millimeter-wave (MMW) systems. We will develop technologies for 3-D structures by industrial plastic molding and electroplating processes with integrated active/passive components and reconfigurable beam-formers....

BPN382: 2D Individually-Addressable Nanowire Arrays

Peter C. Yang
2009

Semiconductor nanowires have recently stimulated great interest due to their attractive and potentially very useful properties, originating from features such as carrier confinement, high surface to volume ratio, and morphology/crystal structure unique to their nanoscale dimension and bottom-up growth process. These properties lead to many possible applications such as room temperature ballistic conductors for high-frequency/high-powered integrated circuits, UV/visible/IR nanolasers and waveguides, as well as sensors for chemical and biological agents. The systematic assembly and...

BPN361: MiNaSIP 2.C.1: MEMS Packaging Beyond Glass Frit

Jiyoung Chang
2009

Glass frit bonding is a largely popular method of encapsulating MEMS devices in the industry today. It's popularity is due to relatively low processing temperature, tunability of thermal coefficient of expansion, and hermetic sealing. However, glass frit bonding requires a large amount of space, sometimes as much as several times the size of the MEMS device itself. This attribute is largely responsible for limiting further scalability and miniaturization of individual dies. This research project aims (1) to take a deeper look into the shortcomings of the existing glass frit bonding...

BPN488: Dielectrophoretic Manipulation of Bacteria for Energy and Biological Applications

Cullen R Buie
Erika Parra
2009

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is the translation of tiny particles, nanometer to micrometer scale, resulting from non-uniform electric fields. Particle motion is dictated by the complex permittivity of the particle, the complex permittivity of the carrier solution (e.g. aqueous buffer), and the local electric field gradient. DEP is an attractive microfluidic manipulation technique because electric fields can be used to exert forces on uncharged particles or biological organisms. DEP has been used in applications ranging from particle separation to bacteria characterization. Here we propose...

BPN428: Thermal Imaging of Single Living Cells

Jui-Ming (Ryan) Yang
2009

The long-term objective of this project is to realize in-vivo temperature measurements and thus create thermal images of single living cells. Existing temperature measurement methods, such as micro-thermal couples and IR cameras, are not suitable for single cell analysis due to various limitations. Our approach is to use wavelength shifts of quantum dots (QDs) as the non-contact, local temperature markers.

Project end date: 02/04/10

BPN402: MiNaSIP 2.C.2: Zero-Stress MEMS Packaging

Chen Yang
Bin Zhang
Ryan Sochol
2010

Tools for linking the environment (application/tester/customer system) with the micro world of a MEMS device are extremely limited. It has proven difficult to accurately predict package, tester, and circuit board interactions and results. Thus, this research aims (1) to explore the physics of micro/macro interfacial contacts/stresses in the back-end packaging process to the overall MEMS RF device performances, and (2) to develop models for stresses in packages with MEMS devices (including RF MEMS such as QFN, LGA, cavity packages, etc.) both in process and final product stages. The...

BPN315: Rapid Synthesis of Nanostructures via Induction Heating

Brian D. Sosnowchik
2010

The primary objective of this work is to develop a platform technology for the rapid synthesis nanostructured materials using an induction heating system. The technology is clean, scalable, inexpensive and versatile, and may be used to rapidly synthesize a wide range of nanomaterials in a room-temperature environment in as little as 30 seconds. Such a synthesis technology may be used to quickly prototype novel and existing vapor-liquid-solid-grown nanomaterials for sensor applications, and open up a new class of nanomaterial synthesis.

Project end date: 08/11/10

BPN404: Biomass Powered Energy Harvester

Erika Parra
2010

This work investigates power scavenging from the decomposition of biomass via a bioelectric fuel cell. Specifically, energy harvesting from microbial metabolism is studied for conversion into electrical energy.

Project end date: 08/11/10

Electrostatic Footpads Enable Agile Insect-Scale Soft Robots with Trajectory Control

Jiaming Liang
Yichuan Wu
Justin K. Yim
Huimin Chen
Zicong Miao
Hanxiao Liu
Ying Liu
Yixin Liu
Dongkai Wang
Wenying Qiu
Zhichun Shao
Ming Zhang
Xiaohao Wang
Junwen Zhong
Liwei Lin
2021

Agility and trajectory control are two desirable features for robotics, but they become very challenging for soft robots without rigid structures to support rapid manipulations. Here, a curved piezoelectric thin film driven at its structural resonant frequency is used as the main body of an insect-scale soft robot for its fast translational movements, and two electrostatic footpads are used for its swift rotational motions. These two schemes are simultaneously executed during operations through a simple two-wire connection arrangement. A high relative centripetal acceleration of 28 body...

Lin Lab: Insect-Sized Robot Navigates Mazes with the Agility of a Cheetah

July 2, 2021
Kara Manke

Many insects and spiders get their uncanny ability to scurry up walls and walk upside down on ceilings with the help of specialized sticky footpads that allow them to adhere to surfaces in places where no human would dare to go.

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have used the principle behind these some of these footpads, called electrostatic adhesion, to create an insect-scale robot that can swerve and pivot with the agility of a cheetah, giving it the ability to traverse complex terrain and quickly avoid unexpected obstacles.

The robot is...