Matching Items (6)
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- All Subjects: MEMS
- Genre: Academic theses
- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Jiang, Hanqing
- Creators: Solanki, Kiran
Description
This thesis presents approaches to develop micro seismometers and accelerometers based on molecular electronic transducers (MET) technology using MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) techniques. MET is a technology applied in seismic instrumentation that proves highly beneficial to planetary seismology. It consists of an electrochemical cell that senses the movement of liquid electrolyte between electrodes by converting it to the output current. MET seismometers have advantages of high sensitivity, low noise floor, small size, absence of fragile mechanical moving parts and independence on the direction of sensitivity axis. By using MEMS techniques, a micro MET seismometer is developed with inter-electrode spacing close to 1μm, which improves the sensitivity of fabricated device to above 3000 V/(m/s^2) under operating bias of 600 mV and input acceleration of 400 μG (G=9.81m/s^2) at 0.32 Hz. The lowered hydrodynamic resistance by increasing the number of channels improves the self-noise to -127 dB equivalent to 44 nG/√Hz at 1 Hz. An alternative approach to build the sensing element of MEMS MET seismometer using SOI process is also presented in this thesis. The significantly increased number of channels is expected to improve the noise performance. Inspired by the advantages of combining MET and MEMS technologies on the development of seismometer, a low frequency accelerometer utilizing MET technology with post-CMOS-compatible fabrication processes is developed. In the fabricated accelerometer, the complicated fabrication of mass-spring system in solid-state MEMS accelerometer is replaced with a much simpler post-CMOS-compatible process containing only deposition of a four-electrode MET structure on a planar substrate, and a liquid inertia mass of an electrolyte droplet encapsulated by oil film. The fabrication process does not involve focused ion beam milling which is used in the micro MET seismometer fabrication, thus the cost is lowered. Furthermore, the planar structure and the novel idea of using an oil film as the sealing diaphragm eliminate the complicated three-dimensional packaging of the seismometer. The fabricated device achieves 10.8 V/G sensitivity at 20 Hz with nearly flat response over the frequency range from 1 Hz to 50 Hz, and a low noise floor of 75 μG/√Hz at 20 Hz.
ContributorsHuang, Hai (Author) / Yu, Hongyu (Thesis advisor) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Dai, Lenore (Committee member) / Si, Jennie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This dissertation presents my work on development of deformable electronics using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based fabrication technologies. In recent years, deformable electronics are coming to revolutionize the functionality of microelectronics seamlessly with their application environment, ranging from various consumer electronics to bio-medical applications. Many researchers have studied this area, and a wide variety of devices have been fabricated. One traditional way is to directly fabricate electronic devices on flexible substrate through low-temperature processes. These devices suffered from constrained functionality due to the temperature limit. Another transfer printing approach has been developed recently. The general idea is to fabricate functional devices on hard and planar substrates using standard processes then transferred by elastomeric stamps and printed on desired flexible and stretchable substrates. The main disadvantages are that the transfer printing step may limit the yield. The third method is "flexible skins" which silicon substrates are thinned down and structured into islands and sandwiched by two layers of polymer. The main advantage of this method is post CMOS compatible. Based on this technology, we successfully fabricated a 3-D flexible thermal sensor for intravascular flow monitoring. The final product of the 3-D sensor has three independent sensing elements equally distributed around the wall of catheter (1.2 mm in diameter) with 120° spacing. This structure introduces three independent information channels, and cross-comparisons among all readings were utilized to eliminate experimental error and provide better measurement results. The novel fabrication and assembly technology can also be applied to other catheter based biomedical devices. A step forward inspired by the ancient art of folding, origami, which creating three-dimensional (3-D) structures from two-dimensional (2-D) sheets through a high degree of folding along the creases. Based on this idea, we developed a novel method to enable better deformability. One example is origami-enabled silicon solar cells. The solar panel can reach up to 644% areal compactness while maintain reasonable good performance (less than 30% output power density drop) upon 40 times cyclic folding/unfolding. This approach can be readily applied to other functional devices, ranging from sensors, displays, antenna, to energy storage devices.
ContributorsTang, Rui (Author) / Yu, Hongyu (Thesis advisor) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Pan, George (Committee member) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The instrumentational measurement of seismic motion is important for a wide range of research fields and applications, such as seismology, geology, physics, civil engineering and harsh environment exploration. This report presents series approaches to develop Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) enhanced inertial motion sensors including accelerometers, seismometers and inclinometers based on Molecular Electronic Transducers (MET) techniques.
Seismometers based on MET technology are attractive for planetary applications due to their high sensitivity, low noise floor, small size, absence of fragile mechanical moving parts and independence on the direction of sensitivity axis. By using MEMS techniques, a micro MET seismometer is developed with inter-electrode spacing close to 5 μm. The employment of MEMS improves the sensitivity of fabricated device to above 2500 V/(m/s2) under operating bias of 300 mV and input velocity of 8.4μm/s from 0.08Hz to 80Hz. The lowered hydrodynamic resistance by increasing the number of channels improves the self-noise to -135 dB equivalent to 18nG/√Hz (G=9.8m/s2) around 1.2 Hz.
Inspired by the advantages of combining MET and MEMS technologies on the development of seismometer, a feasibility study of development of a low frequency accelerometer utilizing MET technology with post-CMOS-compatible fabrication processes is performed. In the fabricated accelerometer, the complicated fabrication of mass-spring system in solid-state MEMS accelerometer is replaced with a much simpler post-CMOS-compatible process containing only deposition of a four-electrode MET structure on a planar substrate, and a liquid inertia mass of an electrolyte droplet. With a specific design of 3D printing based package and replace water based iodide solution by room temperature ionic liquid based electrolyte, the sensitivity relative to the ground motion can reach 103.69V/g, with the resolution of 5.25μG/√Hz at 1Hz.
By combining MET techniques and Zn-Cu electrochemical cell (Galvanic cell), this letter demonstrates a passive motion sensor powered by self-electrochemistry energy, named “Battery Accelerometer”. The experimental results indicated the peak sensitivity of battery accelerometer at its resonant frequency 18Hz is 10.4V/G with the resolution of 1.71μG without power consumption.
Seismometers based on MET technology are attractive for planetary applications due to their high sensitivity, low noise floor, small size, absence of fragile mechanical moving parts and independence on the direction of sensitivity axis. By using MEMS techniques, a micro MET seismometer is developed with inter-electrode spacing close to 5 μm. The employment of MEMS improves the sensitivity of fabricated device to above 2500 V/(m/s2) under operating bias of 300 mV and input velocity of 8.4μm/s from 0.08Hz to 80Hz. The lowered hydrodynamic resistance by increasing the number of channels improves the self-noise to -135 dB equivalent to 18nG/√Hz (G=9.8m/s2) around 1.2 Hz.
Inspired by the advantages of combining MET and MEMS technologies on the development of seismometer, a feasibility study of development of a low frequency accelerometer utilizing MET technology with post-CMOS-compatible fabrication processes is performed. In the fabricated accelerometer, the complicated fabrication of mass-spring system in solid-state MEMS accelerometer is replaced with a much simpler post-CMOS-compatible process containing only deposition of a four-electrode MET structure on a planar substrate, and a liquid inertia mass of an electrolyte droplet. With a specific design of 3D printing based package and replace water based iodide solution by room temperature ionic liquid based electrolyte, the sensitivity relative to the ground motion can reach 103.69V/g, with the resolution of 5.25μG/√Hz at 1Hz.
By combining MET techniques and Zn-Cu electrochemical cell (Galvanic cell), this letter demonstrates a passive motion sensor powered by self-electrochemistry energy, named “Battery Accelerometer”. The experimental results indicated the peak sensitivity of battery accelerometer at its resonant frequency 18Hz is 10.4V/G with the resolution of 1.71μG without power consumption.
ContributorsLiang, Mengbing (Author) / Yu, Hongyu (Thesis advisor) / Dai, Lenore (Committee member) / Kozicki, Michael (Committee member) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Nanocrystalline (NC) and Ultrafine-grained (UFG) metal films exhibit a wide range of enhanced mechanical properties compared to their coarse-grained counterparts. These properties, such as very high strength, primarily arise from the change in the underlying deformation mechanisms. Experimental and simulation studies have shown that because of the small grain size, conventional dislocation plasticity is curtailed in these materials and grain boundary mediated mechanisms become more important. Although the deformation behavior and the underlying mechanisms in these materials have been investigated in depth, relatively little attention has been focused on the inhomogeneous nature of their microstructure (particularly originating from the texture of the film) and its influence on their macroscopic response. Furthermore, the rate dependency of mechanical response in NC/UFG metal films with different textures has not been systematically investigated. The objectives of this dissertation are two-fold.
The first objective is to carry out a systematic investigation of the mechanical behavior of NC/UFG thin films with different textures under different loading rates. This includes a novel approach to study the effect of texture-induced plastic anisotropy on mechanical behavior of the films. Efforts are made to correlate the behavior of UFG metal films and the underlying deformation mechanisms. The second objective is to understand the deformation mechanisms of UFG aluminum films using in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments with Automated Crystal Orientation Mapping. This technique enables us to investigate grain rotations in UFG Al films and to monitor the microstructural changes in these films during deformation, thereby revealing detailed information about the deformation mechanisms prevalent in UFG metal films.
The first objective is to carry out a systematic investigation of the mechanical behavior of NC/UFG thin films with different textures under different loading rates. This includes a novel approach to study the effect of texture-induced plastic anisotropy on mechanical behavior of the films. Efforts are made to correlate the behavior of UFG metal films and the underlying deformation mechanisms. The second objective is to understand the deformation mechanisms of UFG aluminum films using in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments with Automated Crystal Orientation Mapping. This technique enables us to investigate grain rotations in UFG Al films and to monitor the microstructural changes in these films during deformation, thereby revealing detailed information about the deformation mechanisms prevalent in UFG metal films.
ContributorsIzadi, Ehsan (Author) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Thesis advisor) / Peralta, Pedro (Committee member) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Oswald, Jay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
With the advancements in technology, it is now possible to synthesize new materials with specific microstructures, and enhanced mechanical and physical properties. One of the new class of materials are nanoscale metallic multilayers, often referred to as nanolaminates. Nanolaminates are composed of alternating, nanometer-thick layers of multiple materials (typically metals or ceramics), and exhibit very high strength, wear resistance and radiation tolerance. This thesis is focused on the fabrication and mechanical characterization of nanolaminates composed of Copper and Cobalt, two metals which are nearly immiscible across the entire composition range. The synthesis of these Cu-Co nanolaminates is performed using sputtering, a well-known and technologically relevant physical vapor deposition process. X-ray diffraction is used to characterize the microstructure of the nanolaminates. Cu-Co nanolaminates with different layer thicknesses are tested using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based tensile testing devices fabricated using photolithography and etching processes. The stress-strain behavior of nanolaminates with varying layer thicknesses are analysed and correlated to their microstructure.
ContributorsRajarajan, Santhosh Kiran (Author) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Thesis advisor) / Oswald, Jay (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Thin films are widely used for a variety of applications such as electrical interconnects, sensors, as well as optical, mechanical, and decorative coatings. Thin films made of NiTi, commonly referred to as nitinol, have generated recent interest as they are highly suitable for high frequency thermal actuation in microelectromechanical devices because of their small thermal mass and large surface-to-volume ratio. The functional properties of NiTi arise from a diffusionless phase transformation between two of its primary phases: austenite and martensite. This transformation leads to either the shape memory or pseudoelastic effect, where inelastic deformation is recovered with and without the application of heat, respectively. It is well known that the mechanical properties of NiTi are highly dependent on the microstructure, but few studies have been performed to examine the mechanical behavior of thin NiTi films (thickness below 200 nm), which are expected to have grain sizes in a similar range. The primary intent of this work is the synthesis of NiTi thin films with controlled microstructures, followed by characterization of their microstructure and its relationship to the mechanical properties. Microstructural control was achieved by utilizing a novel synthesis technique in which amorphous precursor films are seeded with nanocrystals, which serve as nucleation sites during subsequent crystallization via thermal annealing. This technique enables control of grain size, dispersion, and phase composition of thin films by varying the parameters of seed deposition as well as annealing conditions. The microstructures and composition of the NiTi thin films were characterized using X-ray Diffraction, Electron Microprobe Analysis, High-resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy, Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimetry, as well as other complementary techniques. Mechanical properties of the films were investigated using uniaxial tensile testing performed using a custom microfabricated tensile testing stage. The NiTi thin films exhibit mechanical behavior that is distinct from bulk NiTi, which is also highly sensitive to small changes in microstructure and phase composition. These findings are rationalized in terms of the changes in deformation mechanisms that occur at small grain sizes and sample dimensions.
ContributorsRASMUSSEN, Paul (Author) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Thesis advisor) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Sieradzki, Karl (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021