Richard S. Muller (Advisor)

High-Senstivity Micromechanical Electrostatic Voltmeter

David Loconto

Richard S. Muller

Roger T. Howe

1992

The design, fabrication and testing of electrostatically drive, high-sensitivity dc voltmeters (ESVs), which have demonstrated sensitivity to 10 mV signals is presented in this report. The ESVs have a micromachined test electrode (third layer of polysilicon) 5 um above the shutter, which provides testing repeatability, increased sensitviy to the input and most importantly the ability to accurately model ESV performance. The theoretical first- and second-harmonic output currents are derived. The results of predicted and experimentally meausred signals are compared and show the validity of...

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Parametric Design and Characterization of Linear Microvibromotors

Roger Hipwell

Albert P. Pisano

Richard S. Muller

Oliver M. O'Reilly

1997

Resonant microactuators, such as electrostatic combdrives, have proven useful for many small amplitude actuation applications. However, there are a number of micropositioning applications that require a significantly larger travel range than the 10 pm typically achieved by electrostatic combdrives. In addition,...

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Integrated MEMS Technologies for Adaptive Optics

Blake Lin

Richard S. Muller

Tsu-Jae King Liu

Liwei Lin

2008

Image resolutions of modern optical systems are many times limited by wavefront aberrations due to turbulence in the optical media. Adaptive Optics (AO) is a technology that utilizes deformable mirrors (DM) to correct the wavefront distortion, thereby enhancing the image resolution. In this research, we investigate the design and fabrication of micromechanical-deformable-mirror arrays for AO applications. The mirror arrays are produced using surface micromachining techniques developed for the fabrication of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS).

Because many AO...

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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...

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Design, Theory, and Applications of Integrable Carrier-Domain Magnetometers

Juan Goicolea

Richard S. Muller

1986

This thesis describes an integrated silicon vertical geometry carrier-domain magnetometer fabricated on a silicon substrate using a commercial linear bipolar process. It also describes several chips in which CDMs are used in conjunction with other cir...

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Devices, Structures, and Processes for Optical MEMS

Hyuck Choo

Richard S. Muller

Jeffrey Bokor

James R. Graham

2007

High-precision microlenses have been fabricated utilizing hydrophobic effects and polymer-jet printing technology. The lenses are formed precisely at desired locations on a wafer using a polymer-jet system in which hydrophobic effects define the lens diameter and surface tension creates a high-quality optical surface. They have 200–1000-μm diameters and 343–7862-μm focal lengths. At 635 nm, wavefront aberrations (measured using a Shack-Hartmann sensor of λ/100 accuracy) are λ/5-...