Two important advantages of MEMS switches are their ability to survive heat and radiation. In addition, there has been increasing demand for passing transistor replacement in specific reconfigurable computing and signal routing application; passing transistors used in VLSI exhibit on-state resistances of thousands of ohms or more, which causes signal delay and increased power consumption. In this project, the design, fabrication and characterization of MEMS contact switches customized for VLSI are presented, herein referred to as “VLSI MEMS switchesâ€.
A self-healing MEMS RF switch, which utilizes liquid gallium contacts to take the place of the traditional metal-to-metal hard contacts, is proposed in this project. Electrostatic actuation is used to drive a silicon nitride diaphragm with upper electrodes. When the diaphragm is pulled down by the electrostatic force, small droplets of liquid gallium work as an interface between the upper and lower electrodes. The loss of the gallium droplets can be avoided due to the unwettability of the material surrounding the contact areas. In this project, hermit package and 1A DC current...
(a) To miniaturize airborne particulates sizing and counting apparatus for ubiquitous deployment in air quality monitoring and epidemiological studies. (b) Multitudes of such devices can be deployed over a wide study area (such as downtown Sacramento) to monitor the air quality in situ and generate air particulates spatial and temporal maps. (c) To extend the applications of micro corona discharge device to micro ozone generator for biological sterilizing units, localized ESD control and other EHD-based fluid actuation applications.
This project seeks to integrate MEMS and Planar Lightwave Circuits (PLC), both traditional and composed of Photonic Crystal, to create novel monolithic systems for telecommunication. Specific devices are under design and their functionality will be incrementally verified while fabrication and integration technologies are being developed.
The objective of this project is to develop micro-electromechanical tunable capacitors employing dielectric fluids. In the case of electrostatic, mechanically tunable capacitors the goal is to increase the capacitance per unit area and the tuning range, reduce the mechanical noise and also improve mechanical performance and long-term reliability.
The goal of this project is to develop on-chip tunable inductors and tunable transformers which have high inductance value and high tuning ratios. The potential applications include performance optimization and functionality enhancement to wireless communication, magnetic microsensors, and micromagnetic power devices, such as dc/dc converter.
A low-cost, vertical comb-drive actuator has been developed employing a thick photoresist and electroplating process. The vertical comb-drive actuator (VCA) will be employed for optical applications such as scanning mirrors and optical communication as well as other devices such as tunable capacitors
