Wireless, RF & Smart Dust

Multi-material printing employing charge-programmed material is utilized for phase array antenna fabrication, showcasing an ultra-lightweight RF phase array. Significant weight reduction is achieved through selective dielectric material printing. Our approach enables complex electronic device fabrication in one step, utilizing a mosaic of surface charge regions to deposit functional materials with precision. We demonstrate the inherently complex manufacturing process via homogeneous diffusion and fluid dynamics control.

Project is currently...

This paper demonstrates, via a novel compact model and experiments, that squegging in micromechanical resonant electrical switches (resoswitches) [1] is controllable via impact electrode design. The model captures the nonlinear dynamics of impact contact and predicts squegging. Unlike other numeric and finite-element (FEM)-based models, this physical parameter-based model has no convergence difficulties when simulating impact, accurately captures squegging, and runs within any circuit simulator with up to 100× simulation time improvement compared to commercial software....

As RF MEMS technology evolves to shift towards UHF frequencies, the parasitics inherent in hybrid fabrication approaches become the performance bottleneck. This project aims to integrate metal MEMS resonators directly over CMOS circuitry to achieve fully integrated MEMS systems. Pursuant to this goal, this project proposes several designs for UHF MEMS bandpass filters, exploring how different CMOS-compatible metals can yield performance metrics—such as quality-factor (Q), temperature stability and frequency drift—that are comparable to those of standard polysilicon MEMS resonators....

A self-healing MEMS RF switch, which utilizes liquid gallium contacts to take the place of the traditional metal-to-metal hard contacts, is proposed in this project. Electrostatic actuation is used to drive a silicon nitride diaphragm with upper electrodes. When the diaphragm is pulled down by the electrostatic force, small droplets of liquid gallium work as an interface between the upper and lower electrodes. The loss of the gallium droplets can be avoided due to the unwettability of the material surrounding the contact areas. In this project, hermit package and 1A DC current...