Publications

Material Science and Device Physics of Semiconductors on Arbitrary Substrates

Rehan Kapadia
Ali Javey
Sayeef Salahuddin
Daryl Chrzan
2013

Since the beginnings of the semiconductor revolution, device engineering and material development have been deeply interconnected. Innovations in one invariably spurred development in the other. One of the most important current challenges are developing techniques which enable deposition of materials on arbitrary substrates and the design constraints of devices fabricated via these techniques. This thesis focuses on furthering the materials development-device design cycle for three techniques: (i) epitaxial lift-off, (ii) nanowire growth via the vapor-liquid-solid growth mode, and (...

Position Sensing for Electrostatic Micropositioners

Naiyavudhi Wongkomet
Bernhard E. Boser
Paul R. Gray
Albert A. Pisano
1998
This research investigates the design of capacitive position sensing circuits for electrostatic micropositioners. The goals of this investigation are to understand the interaction among the micropositioners, the driving circuits, and the position sensing ...

Gel-coated FPW Biosensors

Amy Wang
Richard M. White
1993

With the development of microsensors and microactuators, recent research efforts have been made towards utilizing these miniature instruments in biological applications. Flexural plate-wave (FPW) sensors are an example of such a micro-device. They belong to a family ...

Electrical Interconnect of Components Transferred by Fluidic Microassembly Using Capillary Forces

Karen Scott
Roger T. Howe
Clayton J. Radke
John S. Smith
2003
As Micro ElectroMechanical Systems become more complicated, building them asintegrated systems may not be possible and exploring new microassembly technologies becomes necessary. Capillary-based fluidic microassembly is of ...

Micromachined Plastic Millimeter-wave Radar Components

Firas Sammoura
Liwei Lin
Albert P. Pisano
Andrew Neureuther
2006
This research aims to develop plastic millimeter-wave components, including waveguides, tunable filters, phase shifters and antennas, toward the low-cost, batch fabrication for integrated systems for applications such as all-weather automotive and airplane landing radars. The key micromachining processes developed in this work include micro hot embossing, electroplating, polishing and bonding and as a proof of concept demonstration, micro injection molding of...

Integrated MEMS Tuning Fork Oscillators for Sensor Applications

Trey Roessig
Albert P. Pisano
Kameshwar Poolla
Roger T. Howe
1998
In this work, issues involved in the design resonant sensors in a surface- micromachined fabrication technology are investigated. The goal of this work is to describe the important considerations in each portion of the sensor design, including the ...

Surface Micromachined Resonant Force Transducers

Trey Roessig
Albert P. Pisano
George C. Johnson
Lisa Pruitt
1995

This report covers a transduction scheme using surface micromachined tuning forks to measure small forces. This resonant sensing is done by applying an axial force to the tuning fork and measuring the resulting shift in natural frequency. The analysis of the tuning forks is carried ...

Micro Accelerometer Design with Digital Feedback Control

Mark Lemkin
David M. Auslander
Bernhard E. Boser
Albert P. Pisano
1997
In this work, design of capacitive accelerometers with CMOS electronics is investigated. The goal of this investigation is to form accurate behavioral models at three different levels of abstraction: system, electrical, and mechanical. Analysis of these models permits a deeper understanding of both accelerometer design and design trade-offs. The results of this work are used to obtain an accurate prediction of accelerometer performance. At the system level, simultaneous force-balancing and analog-to-digital...

High-Speed Modulation of Optical Injection-Locked Semiconductor Lasers

Erwin Lau
Ming C. Wu
Constance Chang-Hasnain
Xiang Zhang
2006
Semiconductor lasers are an integral part of high-speed telecommunications. The push for higher modulation frequencies, thereby allowing greater data rates, has motivated the scientific community for several decades. However, the maximum speed of directly-modulated semiconductor lasers has plateaued as the field reaches a mature state. Recently, optical injection locking has been proven to enhance the bandwidth and resonance frequency of directly...

Lab-on-a-Chip Mechanical and Optical Components

Nikolas Chronis
Luke P. Lee
Lisa Pruitt
Albert P. Pisano
Richard S. Muller
2004
The present work aims to provide new tools for the manipulation and detection of biological samples. They can be envisioned as individual components of an integrated, lab-on-a-chip system. A novel SU-8 microgripper is introduced for the manipulation of single cells or other biological species in solution with minimal undesired interactions. The electrothermally activated polymer gripper consists of two SU-8 ‘hot-and-cold-arm’ actuators that are fabricated in a two-mask...