Wireless, RF & Smart Dust

Research that includes:

  • Tuneable RF components: capacitors, inductors, transformers
  • RF microrelays
  • High frequency MEMS resonators: devices, structures, and processes

BPN744: Self-Destructing Silicon

Joseph Greenspun
Osama Khan
Travis Massey
Brad Wheeler
Ryan Shih
2017

Funded under the DARPA Vanishing Programmable Resources (VaPR) program, this project explores the fundamental issues associated with making wireless sensor nodes disappear after achieving an objective. The MEMS Hammer is a micromachined device capable of storing mechanical energy and delivering that energy to a target. It has been used to fracture other microfabricated structures made of silicon and silicon dioxide. The MEMS Hammer is capable of storing a wide range of energies with the upper limit exceeding 10uJ. These devices have been characterized to determine the tradeoffs among...

BPN897: High Frequency Oscillator Characterization

Alain Anton
2018

This project aims to study and understand fundamental mechanisms that govern phase noise, aging, thermal stability, and acceleration stability in high frequency micromechanical resonator oscillators.

Project end date: 01/29/18

BPN861: Fully Integrated MEMS-Based Super-Regenerative Transceiver

Gleb Melnikov
2017

This project aims to integrate our previously demonstrated MEMS-Based Super-Regenerative Transceiver in a fully integrated CMOS- MEMS fabrication process.

Project end date: 01/29/18

BPN840: W-Band Additive Vacuum Electronics

Ilbey Karakurt
2018

Radio frequency (RF) devices for high frequency applications such as satellite communication and mobile and ground uplinks have brought about the demand for higher power handling capabilities and increased efficiency in these devices. Technologies for creating low cost, advanced millimeter wave electronics devices without sacrificing quality or performance has thus grown. Direct metal additive manufacturing techniques, such as electron beam melting, has been projected to be capable of fabricating such devices. Key concerns regarding these techniques are the requirements for high...

BPN864: Micromechanical Resonator Waveform Synthesizer

Thanh-Phong Nguyen
2018

This project aims to demonstrate a waveform synthesizer using multiple micromechanical resonator oscillators with outputs combined to use ultimately in a super-regenerative receiver.

Project end date: 01/24/19

BPN865: CMOS-Assisted Resoswitch Receivers

Kyle K. Tanghe
2019

This project aims to harness extremely low power CMOS integrated circuits to boost the Q’s of micromechanical resoswitches towards much higher sensitivity resoswitch receivers.

Project end date: 08/12/19

BPN943: Silicon Carbide Thin Films for Chronically Implanted Microelectronics

Konlin Shen
2020

Chronically implanted integrated circuits (ICs) can enable sophistication in implants beyond purely measurement, such as closed-loop modulation of physiology. However, the body is a corrosive and chemically aggressive environment in which ionic and reactive oxidative species can easily damage implanted microelectronics. Conventionally, implanted ICs are packaged in titanium or ceramic housing to reach decadal lifetime, but such packaging is not conducive to sub-millimeter scale miniaturization. Thin-film encapsulants such as parylene, SiO2, and SiC can greatly...

BPN916: Mesh-Networked Micro-Air-Vehicle Systems

Brian G. Kilberg
2020

The goal of this project is to develop mesh-networked multi-agent robotic systems that can improve connectivity in network-adverse conditions. Mesh-networking enables longer communication range for multi- MAV systems with limited radio power and provides scalable peer-to-peer communications. This system is based on OpenWSN, which is an open-source implementation of the 6TiSCH networking protocol, whose underlying technology has been successful in mesh networks for industrial process automation. These successful mesh- networking technologies were originally intended...

BPN903: Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks

Brian Kilberg
Craig B. Schindler
Felipe Campos
2020

As the size, cost, power, and communication latency of wireless sensor nodes continues to decrease, wireless sensor networks have the potential to be used in a variety of new and interesting ways. In this project we aim to demonstrate applications and use cases that are possible with small, low power, and low latency networks; for example, collecting high-resolution personal telemetry via products with embedded sensor networks, networked autonomous robotic systems, smart buildings, and industrial process control. While this project utilizes custom 15mmx15mm wireless sensor...

BPN560: Video Over Wireless Sensor Networks: From Camera to Smartphone

Fabien Chraim
Thomas Watteyne
2010

To this date, Wireless Sensor Networks are still largely characterized by non-intensive applications, which means that they are mainly used to gather relatively small amounts of data. This project aims at pushing the limits of Sensor Networks to the point of transmitting video in real-time. The crucial advancement that enabled this application was the introduction of Time-Synchronized Channel Hopping which made communication more robust on unreliable wireless links. In addition to using the camera as a sensor, this project is concerned with interfacing smartphones with low power...