Richard S. Muller (Advisor)

RSM29: Micromirror Arrays for Adaptive Optics

Michael A. Helmbrecht
2003

This project has demonstrated piston and tip/tilt actuation of an array of 500-750 µm-radius hexagonal mirrors with fill factors exceeding 98%. The mirrors will actuate above the substrate in a piston motion over a range of greater than 5 µm for astronomy applications and over 20 µm for vision science applications. Tip/tilt rotations of about a degree are also required. The frequency response must exceed 4 kHz for astronomy and 100 Hz for vision science. Finally, a scalable interconnect will be investigated that will connect from hundreds to thousands of mirror segments....

RSM34: Feedback Control and Electronics for Deformable Mirrors

Daniel Good
2003

The goal of this project is to design control electronics for the deformable mirrors demonstrated by Michael Helmbrecht. The first part of the circuit design to be performed is control of a single mirror past its pull-in instability. This will extend the possible travel range for a given drive voltage, which is very important, as deformable mirrors benefit from extremely large travel range. The second circuit design goal is to design addressing circuitry to enable mirror scaling from a few actuators to the hundreds or thousands necessary for extreme adaptive optics.

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RSM35: MEMS barcode reader

Rishi Kant
2003

The goal of this project is to build a commercially viable MEMS-based barcode reader for UPC/EAN barcodes. An initial design will focus on integrating microelectronics and micromechanics for a single-chip realization in order to meet the goals of small size, low power, low cost and ability to integrate into mobile units.

Project end date: 09/08/04

RSM38: MEMS Integrable Temperature Sensor

Chao-chih Hsu
2004

Temperature sensors have wide range of application. They are needed in all fields of research ranging from chemistry and biology, to electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. As miniaturization takes steps into micro-scale, the need for obtaining thermal information becomes more prevalent. Our goal in this project aims at creating micro temperature sensor that can be integrated into the MEMS structures.

Project end date: 08/31/05

RSM37: Design of Controls for MEMS Adaptive Optics

Kuo-J Huang
2005

The research project investigates micromirrors used in the adaptive-optics system. Micromirrors have been used for adaptive-optics system to correct the wavefront aberrations in the astronomical and vision science applications. The required number of micromirrors depends on the available motions of the actuator. For astronomical and vision science applications, the required number of micromirrors can be greatly reduced if the micromirrors are able to move in both rotational and translations motions rather than translational motion alone. The goal of our research project is to design...

BPN300: A Simple Process to Fabricate High-Performance Torsional Microscanners and Their Applications

Hyuck Choo
2005

The first goal of this project is to demonstrate a high-yield, CMOS-compatible simple process to batch-fabricate self-aligned, high-performance torsional microscanners. The second goal is to demonstrate three different, commercially demanded applications for the fabricated torsional microscanners.

Project end date: 01/07/06

RSM33: MEMS Microlenses and Lenslets: Their Application to Shack-Hartmann Sensors

Hyuck Choo
2006

Using hydrophobic effects and polymer-jet printing technology, we are developing a simple yet reliable method to fabricate microlenses for optical MEMS applications. We have characterized microlenses optically and are demonstrating their functionality in optical MEMS. The specific application that we are working on is Shack-Hartmann sensors. We expect to improve the dynamic range and sensitivity of Shack-Hartmann sensors by 20-40 factor.

Project end date: 07/30/06

RSM36: Selectively Addressed MEMS Digital-Mirror Arrays for Adaptive Optics

Blake Lin
2007

This project investigates the design of MEMS-deformable-mirror (DM) arrays for adaptive-optics (AO) systems. In these arrays, micromirror segments are individually addressed and controlled to correct the aberrated wavefronts of an optical beam dynamically. This correction improves image resolution in telescopes or vision-science instruments. Our research focuses on developing a CMOS-compatible MEMS process to integrate micromirrors with their driving electronics and control circuitry. In this way, we will control large mirror arrays selectively.

Project end date: ...

BPN390: Fluid microlens for MEMS

George Chao-chih Hsu
2007

Tunable micro-lenses have been the focus of many studies recently. However, due to the inert complexity of the fluid-solid interaction, arraying has yet to be achieved. This project focuses on creating an efficient fabrication process with new design and materials. These improvements make the new design readily applicable to collimators and Shack-Harmon Sensors. Furthermore, we will study performance of various lens liquids, more specifically ones that will increase the working temperature range. We will then characterize the new lens liquids and hydrophobic layer under various...

KSJP30/JD: Electrometrology with MEMS

David Garmire
Hyuck Choo
2007

Practical analysis techniques to accurately measure geometric, dynamic, and material properties of MEMS will be developed. Analytical methods and test structures will be made to extract over two dozen properties by electric probing in a minimal chip area. Geometric properties will include fabrication error with respect to layout geometry such as beam widths, gap spacings, etch holes, and beam lengths. Dynamic properties will include mass, damping, stiffness, bulk compliance, quality factor, exponential damping factor, displacement amplitude, velocity amplitude, comb drive force, and...