Publications

In 2012, electricity generation was responsible for over 30% of carbon emissions in the US - surpassing the transportation sector - and predictions to 2040 show this trend continuing with current technologies. Electrical submetering provides improved spatial and temporal resolution into how buildings use their energy, and case studies have shown that improvements driven by submetering data can lead to 5-30% reductions in electrical energy usage. However, traditional building submetering technologies present unfavorable cost, installation, and form factor attributes that inhibit the...

Wireless technology, which already plays a major part in our daily lives, is expected to further expand to networks of billions of autonomous sensors in coming years: the so-called Internet of Things. In one vision, sensors employing low-cost, low-power wireless motes collect and transmit data through a mesh network while operating only on scavenged or battery power. RF MEMS provides one approach to the stringent power and performance required by sensor networks.

This dissertation presents improvement to these MEMS technologies and introduces new approaches for wireless...

Ultrasound has long been used for medical imaging. Recent advances of miniaturized MEMS ultrasonic transducers new applications such as gesture recognition, personal fitness devices, and fingerprint sensors. These devices are considerably smaller than conventional transducers. To benefit from their lower excitation power requirements and address the reduced sensitivity requires the design of novel interface electronic circuits.

The first part of this thesis describes new circuits capable of generating all the high voltage drive signals for MEMS transducers on-chip from a single low...

Neutrophils, a class of white blood cells, are our body’s first line of defense against invading pathogens. When the number of neutrophils in blood drops to 200cells/$\mu$L, it leads to a critical clinical condition called neutropenia. Currently, optical flow cytometry is the most common and powerful technique used to diagnose neutropenia, but the centralized nature of the test, time-consuming sample preparation and high cost prevent real-time modification of treatment regimens.

In this thesis, we propose an approach of using magnetic labels to tag and detect cells that allows us...