What Applications Utilize MEMS?
Defense, Energy, Photonics, Medical, Telecom, Electronics, Aerospace, Transportation
- Digital light projection & optical routers
- Lab-on-Chip: water analysis, drug dispensing, DNA analysis, tagging cancer cells
- Accelerometers: air bag deployment, Nintendo Wii controllers, Apple and Android smartphones, aircraft controls
- Solar cells: silicon & organic photovoltaics
- Solid state lighting: white light LEDs
- Data storage: computers, photography, Blu-Ray DVD, military systems
Research Projects
Solid State Lighting: White Light LEDs.
Team: Tuan Nguyen, Dylan McDaniel, Alex Doyle, Patrick Angulo, Michael Olivarez
- Phosphors integrated into PDMS layers that can be formed into adjustable lens
- Integration of QDs into PDMS layers that yield white light LEDs
- Retrofit Bonderson Project Center (Building 197) with LED lighting, characterize long-term impact on sustainability, demonstrate practicale implementation of LED lighting systems designed at Cal Poly: reading lights, room lights, spot/flood lights, shop lights, safety lights, etc.
Solar Cell Arrays
Team: Chrissa Blattner, Scott Carey, Jared Myren, Faye Siao, Max Anderson
- Array of micro-size solar cells that can serve to power sensors (hearing aid button batteries)
- Characterize material properties for forming solderable low resistance contacts to bonding pads
- Design and fabricate interconnect scheme for multiple solar cells on SOI wafers
- Fabricate and characterize “black silicon” (RIE process) as anti-reflection coating
Quantum Dots
Team: Josh Angel, Susan Harada, Davis Carlin, Brian Harley, Peter Gonsalves, Patrick McBridge, Kyle Bentz, Logan Stark
- Characterization of reactions to form CdSe QDs and encapsulants to stabilize the quantum efficiency and solubility in polar and non-polar solvents
- Design & fabricate QD Chip for synthesizes QDs on the microliter level and controlling their luminescent spectral bandwidths
- Design and fabricate flow through cell for evaluating absorption and fluorescence of microliter volumes of QD fluids
MEMS Sensors & Actuators
Team: Tim McCrone, Adam Olzick, Brian Alvarez, Mike Marrujo, Warren Back, Vincent Gayotin, Richard Morrison, Alex Preisser
- Anodic bonding of silicon to glass for microfluidic channels
- ZnO based piezoelectric speaker for hearing aids
- Design and fabricate actuators based on NiTi SMA thin films
- Design and fabricate electrostatically actuated optical switch
- Artificial Muscle Project: dielectric electroactive polymer (PDMS)
Corporate Partners
- Boeing
- General LED
- Applied Technology
