Publications

Polysilicon Microstructures to Characterize State Friction

Martin Lim
Roger T. Howe
Roberto Horowitz
1990

A polysilicon microstucture to characterize static fiction has been developed. A normal force is applied to a displaced suspended structure by an underlying electrode. The tangential force to measure the frictional force is produced by a...

A Tactile Sensor Utilizing Light Coupling Between Optical Fibers

Vadim Konradi
1987

A tactile sensing array emplying optical fibers has been constructed and tested. The sensor is composed of two layers of optical fibers, oriented at right angles to each other, and overlaid by an elastomer sheet. Fibers in the upper layer are illuminated individually. Total internal reflection is violated by pressure-induced contact between the elastomer and the upper fiber layer. Scattered light is collected by fibers in the lower layer, resultin gin a matrix of tactile pressure readings.

The sensor concept was verified, and recognizable tactile images were generated for simple...

Gimballed Electrostatic Microactuators with Embedded Interconnects

Lilac Muller
Albert P. Pisano
Roger T. Howe
Kristofer S.J. Pister
2005
A microgimbal with an integrated in-plane electrostatic microactuator was designed, fabricated, and tested. The microgimbal structure provided pitch and roll compliance between the microactuator and ground, and thus offered mechanical isolation from external disturbances, such as vibration and temperature variations. ...

Hinged Polysilicon Structures with Integrated CMOS Thin Film Transistors

Kristofer S.J. Pister
Roger T. Howe
1992
Before Micro Electro Mechanical &stems (MEMS) can achieve their full potential, design tools for these systems must be made available to members of other disciplines, and not restricted only to those with the...

Micromechanical Power Conversion

J. Mark Noworolski
Seth Sanders
Roger T. Howe
Albert P. Pisano
1998

A new concept in power conversion, based on electromechanical energy storage, is developed. Mechanical energy storage using Silicon offers a 2 order of magnitude improvement in volumetric energy storage density over conventional approaches using...

Biological Applications of Micromachined Ultrasonic Flexural Plate-Wave Technology

Audra Hsien-I Meng
Richard M. White
Rajendra Bhatnagar
Albert P. Pisano
1999
The micromachined acoustic flexural plate-wave (FPW) device has many applications in biological research and medical diagnostics. In order to safely use the FPW device for these applications, we studied the effects of ultrasound produced with the device on biological...

The Development of Lead Zirconate Titanate Thin Films for Piezoelectric Microactuators

Annabel Susan Nickles
Eugene E. Haller
Richard M. White
Timothy D. Sands
1998
Piezoelectric actuation of a thin film is one means used for electrical-mechanical transduction in Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Currently, the most commonly employed piezoelectric thin-film material is ZnO. Replacing ZnO with certain compositions of lead zirconate titanate (PZT)...

Design, Fabrication, and Optimization of Micromechanical Flexures

Young-Ho Cho
Albert P. Pisano
Roger T. Howe
1990

In this dissertation are described two types of micromechanical flexures for guiding mov- able micromechanical structures with applications to high-precision Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), whose typical sizes are in the order of ...

Design and Fabrication of PZT-Actuated Silicon Suspensions for Hard Disk Drives

Tsung-Lin Chen
Roberto Horowitz
Roger T. Howe
Albert P. Pisano
2001
Piezoelectrically actuated suspensions are currently being considered by the magneticrecording industry, as a means of achieving dual-stage actuation in magnetic Hard Disk Drives. In most designs, piezoelectric actuators are ...

The Fracture Strength of Brittle Films for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Devices

Peter Truxtun Jones
George C. Johnson
Roger T. Howe
Lisa A. Pruitt
1999
This work investigates the fracture behavior of brittle thin films used as structural materials for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices. Static fracture is a possible mode of failure for MEMS devices, and as such...