Publications

MEMS Hydrogel Sensors for pH and Glucose Measurements

Supone Manakasettharn
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
2008
A new formulation of a pHand a glucoseresponsive hydrogel was developed and then integrated into an interdigitated MEMS sensor. This new hydrogel was characterized for swelling response as well as for impedance response (resistance and capacitance) when used as both a pH and a glucose sensor. The standard pHresponsive hydrogel, which was a copolymer of 2hydroxyethyl methacrylate and...

Micro Chemical Vapor Deposition for the Synthesis of Nanomaterials

Qin Zhou
Liwei Lin
Albert P. Pisano
Ali Javey
2011

MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) technologies have enabled the construction of a micro chemical vapor deposition (μCVD) system for the synthesis of nanomaterials. By means of localized resistive heating via microheaters, unique capabilities of the μCVD systems have been utilized to synthesize carbon nanotubes and graphene in this work, including fast stabilization of temperature; rapid exchange of gas species; laminar gas flow due to small Reynolds number; small diffusion...

Microscale Phase Change of Fuels for MEMS Power Applications

Brenda Haendler
Albert P. Pisano
Dorian Liepmann
Daniel M. Kammen
2006
As portable electronics technology advances, systems are becoming smaller and more energy intensive. While batteries are currently the only commercial power source for these applications, work is being done to create liquid fuel based portable power packs. These systems would leverage the higher energy density (W-hr/l) and specific energy (W-hr/kg) of liquid hydrocarbon fuels over available battery chemistries. For micro engines and small fuels cells there are advantages to preheating and vaporizing the fuel ...

Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenide NanoLEDs: Towards High Speed and High Efficiency

Kevin Han
Ming C. Wu
Ali Javey
Feng Wang
2019
Onchip optical interconnects promise to drastically reduce energy consumption compared to electrical interconnects, which dominate power dissipation in modern integrated circuits (ICs)One key requirement is a lowpower, highefficiency, and highspeed nanoscale light source. However, existing IIIV semiconductor light sources face a high surface recombination velocity (SRV ~ 104–106cm/s...

Metal Optics Based nanoLEDS: In Search of a Fast, Efficient, Nanoscale Light Emitter

Michael Eggleston
Ming C. Wu
Eli Yablonovitch
Xiang Zhang
2015
Since the invention of the laser, stimulated emission has been the de facto king of optical communication. Lasers can be directly modulated at rates as high as 50GHz, muchfaster than a typical solid statelightemitting diode(LED)that is limited by spontaneous emission to <1GHz. Unfortunately, lasers have a severe scaling problem; they require large cavities operated at high power to achieve efficient lasing. A properly...

MEMS Aluminum Nitride Technology for Inertial Sensors

Gabriele Vigevani
Albert P. Pisano
Liwei Lin
Ming C. Wu
2011
The design and fabrication of MEMS Inertial Sensors (both accelerometers and gyro-scopes) made of Aluminum Nitride (AlN) is described in this dissertation. The goal of this work is to design and fabricate inertial sensors based on c-axis oriented AlN polycrystalline thin films. AlN is a post-CMOS compatible piezoelectric material widely used for acoustic resonators, such Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) and Lamb Wave Resonators(LWR). In this work we develop the design techniques necessary to obtain inertial sensors...

Microfluidic Technologies for Single Cell Analysis

Dino Di Carlo
Luke P. Lee
Jay T. Groves
Tejal A. Desai
2006
Analysis of single cells is important for a complete understanding of the heterogeneity that is present in cell behavior and function. Current single cell analysis methods provide high throughput information about labeled compounds within cells, but in most cases cannot follow the dynamic processes occurring in signaling pathways. New microfluidic methods have also been developed to assay fast timescale responses or create uniform environments to study cell behavior in a more quantitative manner....

Material Synthesis and Characterization for Micro-supercapacitor Applications

Benjamin Hsia
Roya Maboudian
David B. Graves
Liwei Lin
2013

Supercapacitors represent a critical energy storage device technology for applications which require higher power density and/or cycle lifetime than existing battery technologies. Microscale supercapacitors, in particular, can enable novel applications in autonomous, wireless microsensors and microelectronics. If these micro-supercapacitors can be fabricated in a planar, on-chip geometry, the energy storage and the device...

Modulated Infrared Source

Peter Yung-Sen Chen
Richard S. Muller
Roger T. Howe
1993
This project considers the design and fabrication of a modulated microincandescent IR source. To reduce background noise and to improve signal amplification, most infrared applications require a modulated IR output at a fairly high frequency (above 1kHz)....

MEMS Design via Automated Synthesis, Extraction, and Simulation

Hee Jung Lee
Kristofer S.J. Pister
1996

System level computer aided design (CAD) tools for micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) have been developed based on VLSI CAD techniques. This CAD package includes parameterized synthesis, extraction, and simulation tools. These tools are being integrated into the ASIC design tools ...