Liwei Lin (Advisor)

Research Advised by Professor Liwei Lin

Lin Group:  List of Projects | List of Researchers

Mechanical Energy Storage for Self-Destructing Motes and Jumping Microrobots

Joseph Greenspun
Kristofer S.J. Pister
Vivek Subramanian
Liwei Lin
2018
Mechanical energy storage has been studied to enable a self-destructing mote and ajumping microrobot. Just as chemical energy stored in batteries can be used for a widearray of devices, so too can mechanical energy stored in beams. In this work various energystorage elements are designed, fabricated, and tested to create these MEMS systems. As privacy and data security become increasingly important, new means of keeping that data safe must be developed. A MEMS system has been created to allow a wirelessly enabled...

Low-Power, High-Stability FM MEMS Gyroscopes

Yu-Ching Yeh
Bernhard E. Boser
Liwei Lin
2016

With the advantages of small size and low cost, MEMS gyroscopes have been used in a variety of applications such as image stabilization, gaming control, and motion tracking for mobile or wearable devices. One potential application for MEMS gyroscopes is indoor navigation. This minimizes the infrastructure requirements compared with other approaches with electromagnetic reference beacons. However, recent consumer MEMS gyroscopes are still orders away from achieving navigation grade performance.

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Localized Strain Sensing Using High Resolution, Highly-sensitive MEMS Resonant Strain Gauges

Matthew Wei-Jen Chan
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
2010

This thesis presents experimental measurements of the first-ever MEMS double ended tuning fork (DETF) resonant strain gauge for localized strain field sensing, successfully bonded to steel by rapid inductive heating. With a gauge length of just 200μm, the presentedMEMS resonant strain gauge enables a high spatial resolution sensor capable of accurately detecting localized strains better than commonly used foil strain gauges, which average strain measurements over much larger areas. The...

Integrated MEMS Cavity Optomechanical Oscillators for Wireless and Optical Communications

Turker Beyazoglu
Clark T.-C. Nguyen
Ming C. Wu
Liwei Lin
2016
Recent advancements in micro-optical and micro-mechanical resonator technologies haveallowed researchers to exploit coupling between the optical field and mechanical motionin an optical cavity to affect cooling or amplification of mechanical motion. Cooling the mechanical motion of microscale objects has been of high scientific interest, since it facilitates observation and exploration of certain quantum phenomena, e.g., the standard quantum limit of detection. On the other hand, amplification of the mechanical motion...

Integrated Biophysical Microfluidic Platforms for Pathogen Detection and Single Cell Analysis

Poorya Sabounchi
Luke P. Lee
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
Daniel A. Fletcher
2007
Pathogen detection is of the utmost importance primarily for health and safety reasons. The most common problem encountered with current pathogen monitoring techniques is the inverse relationship between specificity versus sensitivity and speed. Current tools used for pathogen identification are accurate but require a vast amount of sample preparation time, typically from an experienced operator in a laboratory setting and therefore not suitable for...

Integration of Hydrogels and Plastics into Microfabrication Processes towards a MEMS RF-Interrogated Biosensor

Sebastien Payen
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
Amy E. Herr
2007
Very inexpensive biosensors capable of monitoring biometrics data of a living organism have long been a goal of biomedical device technology. As such the integration of polymers and plastics are a good solution to achieve low cost and powerless devices. This dissertation presents experimental results on the integration of hydrogels (a class of polymer which swells in water) into microfabrication processes and the development of a new, all-plastic pH sensor. In particular, the work done on oxygen diffusion in hydrogels...

Highly Scalable Silicon Photonic Switches Based on Waveguide Crossbar with Movable Waveguide Couplers

Sangyoon Han
Ming C. Wu
Richard S. Muller
Liwei Lin
2016
Fast opticalcircuitswitches (OCS) having a large number of ports can significantly enhance the performance and the efficiency of modern data centers by actively rearranging network patternsCommercially available optical switches typically operate with the use of moving mirror arrays. These switches can have port counts...

Flexible Supercapacitors Based on Micro/Nanofibers

Caiwei Shen
Liwei Lin
Bryan McCloskey
Van Carey
2018
Flexible energy storage components are indispensable in the field of flexible electronicsSupercapacitors featuring high power density, fast charge/discharge rate, long cycle life, and safe operation are desirable devicesMicro/nanofiberbased electrode materials, fabrication processes, and device configurations are investigated towards flexible supercapacitors applications....

Electromagnetic Energy Harvester for Sensors on Overhead Power Distribution Lines

Zhiwei Wu
Liwei Lin
Richard M. White
Dennis Lieu
2020

The electric grid began its service over 100 years ago and accumulated many safety concerns regarding its infrastructure and nearby environment. The wireless sensor network has been deployed to monitor the condition of both the grid infrastructure and environment, and non-interrupted power sources with minimal maintenance has been an engineering challenge. Here, design of an inexpensive and durable electromagnetic energy harvester coupled with the magnetic field from the power line conductors for powering the wireless...

Evaporation-Driven Fast Crystallization of 3D Micro- and Nano-particle Assemblies via Micro Mechanical Systems

Sun Choi
Albert P. Pisano
Tarek I. Zohdi
Liwei Lin
Ming C. Wu
2012
Fast crystallization of solid-phase materials in liquid medium is a crucial prerequisite to achieve the aims of a number of applications for micro-, nanomanufacturing, bio-chemical sensing technology and fundamental colloidal scienceCorresponding mechanical systems for those applications are required to accommodate and take advantage of the virtue of multi-phase (liquid, gas, and solid phases) flow phenomenon to accomplish “crystallization...