Research Highlights of 2010

Haitao Ding

Reuben Wilcock

Steffen Mueller

Bader Almutairi

Ali Alshehri

Christopher Cardwell

Tess de Leon

Rachel Gleeson Kian Kiang

Hwanjit Rattanasonti

Pejwaak Salimi

Alan Taberham

Ioannis Zeimpekis-Karakonstantinos  

Prasanna Srivisavan

Ibrahim Sari

Carsten Gollasch

Mir Mokhtari

Michael Kraft

3D Electrostatic Actuator

s il ic o ns u b s t ra t eg o ld w ire s

s il ic o ns u b s t ra t e

g la s ss u b s t ra t e

xy actuationAlignment of optical cavityMisalignment between fibre and spherical mirror during fabrication

z actuationStable and tunable optical cavityz actuation accuracy of a few nm (fine tuning)

Actuator Action

Comb Drive Suspension System

Fabrication:60um SOI etched with DRIEDicing free separation and release with HF vapour etchingAllows arbitrarily large proof mass

High Performance Accelerometer

Mechanical Amplifiers for MEMS

Most MEMS physical sensors rely on tiny deflections of a proof massThe interface electronics introduces thermal noiseIntroduce a mechanical amplification stage based on a mechanical lever

Mechanical Amplifiers for MEMS

MEMS Laser Target Injection SystemElectromagnetic Levitation System and Railgun

MEMS Laser Target Injection SystemElectromagnetic Levitation System and Railgun

Multi DoF Inertial Sensors

Applications in active damping control of vibrating panels, structural health monitoring, etcIn closed loop operation, the sensors allows direct velocity measurement using a ‘sky hook’ damper

ms

Suspended beam

Ion and Charged Particle Trapping

Applications in quantum computing, target injection for fusion reactors, nano particle manipulation, etcMEMS Paul RF trap

MEMS Solar Concentrators

Thermoelectric power generation with solar light concentratorsAchieves high on-chip temperature gradientsInitial calculation shows that this could rival high performance solar cells at much lower costs. 16% efficiency simulated for a 10mmx10mm device

lens

TEG

MEMS DC-DC Converter

Interface from energy harvesters (vibration, solar)