Publications

Magnetic Field Sensing Using Micromechanical Oscillators

Soner Sonmezoglu
David A. Horsley
Rajeevan Amirtharajah
Xiaoguang “Leo” Liu
2017
Lorentz force magnetic sensors based on micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) resonators, measuring the vector components of the magnetic field, have recently attracted substantial commercial interest in inertial navigation systems (INSs) and compasses for smartphones. Over the last decade, substantial research effort has focused on improving the magnetic field sensitivity and resolution of Lorentz force magnetic sensors relying on either amplitude modulation...

Monolithic Piezoelectrically-Actuated MEMS-Tunable VCSEL

Kan Bun Cheng
Albert P. Pisano
Ming C. Wu
2006
Recently there has been intense research in the field of tunable VCSELs due to the increasing needs of all-optical communications. Tunable lasers can provide low-cost and compact solutions for signal routing and switching in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks. It is believed that tunable lasers will play a pivotal role in advancing intelligent optical communications, with applications in all-optical switching as well as other...

Materials Science and Device Physics of 2-Dimensional Semiconductors

Hui Fang
Ali Javey
Ramamoorthy Ramesh
Junqiao Wu
Eli Yablonovitch
2014

Materials and device innovations are the keys to future technology revolution. For MOSFET scaling in particular, semiconductors with ultra-thin thickness on insulator platform is currently of great interest, due to the potential of integrating excellent channel materials with the industrially mature Si processing. Meanwhile, ultra-thin thickness also induces strong quantum confinement which in turn affect most of the material properties of these 2-dimensional (2-D) semiconductors, providing...

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 ...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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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