Research Highlights of 2010
Michael Kraft
Ibrahim Sari
Haitao Ding
Prasanna
Srivisavan
Steffen Mueller
Rachel Gleeson
Hwanjit Rattanasonti
Carsten Gollasch Bader Almutairi
Reuben Wilcock
Tess de Leon
Kian Kiang
Christopher Cardwell
Ali Alshehri
Ioannis ZeimpekisKarakonstantinos
Alan Taberham
Pejwaak Salimi
Mir Mokhtari
3D Electrostatic Actuator
silicon
substrate
gold wires
silicon
substrate
glass
substrate
xy actuation
Alignment of optical cavity
Misalignment between fibre and
spherical mirror during fabrication
z actuation
Stable and tunable optical cavity
z actuation accuracy of a few nm (fine
tuning)
Actuator Action
Comb Drive
Suspension System
High Performance Accelerometer
Fabrication:
60um SOI etched with DRIE
Dicing free separation and
release with HF vapour etching
Allows arbitrarily large proof
mass
Mechanical Amplifiers for MEMS
Most MEMS physical sensors rely on tiny deflections of
a proof mass
The interface electronics introduces thermal noise
Introduce a mechanical amplification stage based
on a mechanical lever
Mechanical Amplifiers for MEMS
MEMS Laser Target Injection System
Electromagnetic Levitation System and Railgun
MEMS Laser Target Injection System
Electromagnetic Levitation System and Railgun
Multi DoF Inertial Sensors
Suspended
beam
ms
Applications in active damping control of vibrating panels, structural health
monitoring, etc
In closed loop operation, the sensors allows direct velocity measurement
using a ‘sky hook’ damper
Ion and Charged Particle Trapping
Applications in quantum computing, target injection for fusion
reactors, nano particle manipulation, etc
MEMS Paul RF trap
MEMS Solar Concentrators
lens
TEG
Thermoelectric power generation with solar light concentrators
Achieves high on-chip temperature gradients
Initial calculation shows that this could rival high performance solar cells at much
lower costs. 16% efficiency simulated for a 10mmx10mm device
MEMS DC-DC Converter
Interface from energy harvesters (vibration, solar)