Roger T. Howe (Advisor)

Analysis and Characterization of the Vertical Carrier Domain Magnetometer

Bret S. Burns
Richard S. Muller
Roger T. Howe
1989
The point of semiconductor device analysis is to find useful predictors of device performance. With these we can design to specifications, uncover promising directions for improving device operation, and understand device limitations. An actual device has no...

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...

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...

Large Displacement Electrostatic Microactuators With Polysilicon Flexure Suspensions

Reid Alyn Brennen
Albert P. Pisano
Roger T. Howe
Homayoon Kazerooni
1993

Two electrostatically-driven surface-micromachined microactuators designed for large displacement motion are presented along with a literature review of microactuators that includes over 300 references. The first polycrystalline silicon device, the semaphore, achieves large amplitudes by resonant excitation of a plate mass attached to the end of a cantilever beam. The semaphore is driven by either linear or curved electrostatic comb drives. The second device, the tangential drive, uses the direct electrostatic force between two charged bars to attain large static displacements in one of...

Design, Fabrication, Position Sensing, and Control of Electrostatic, Surface-Micromachined Polysilicon Microactuators

Patrick Ching-Pak Cheung
Roberto Horowitz
Roger T. Howe
Albert P. Pisano
1995
This dissertation describes the design, fabrication, position sensing, and control of an electrostatically-driven microactuator. The polysilicon microactuator, together with an on-chip electronic buffer, were fabricated by the Modular ...

Surface Treatments for Adhesion Reduction in Polysilicon Micromechanical Devices

Michael Robert Houston
Roya Maboudian
Roger T. Howe
David B. Graves
1996
This work investigates the interactions between polysilicon surfaces for the purpose of alleviating the strong interfacial adhesion present between contacting microstructure sufaces, a problem referred to as stiction. Without specifically-designed...