Silicon carbide thin films for MEMS nanoreactors for in-situ transmission electron microscopy

Thermal management of solid state lighting module

Solid-State Lighting (SSL), powered by Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), is an energy-efficient technology for lighting systems. In contrast to incandescent lights which obtain high efficiency at high temperatures, the highest efficiency of LEDs is reached at low temperatures. The thermal management in LED product is then a key design parameter as...

Ultra thin films for sensing and heating of microprobes

This dissertation aims to advance the current state of cantilevers with integrated metal thermal and deflection sensing elements. Metallic sensing elements enable the use of alternative substrate materials (such as polymers), that tend to exhibit higher compliance properties and are more robust (less brittle) compared to Si or Si3N4 cantilevers....

Hybrid Wafer-Level Packaging for RF-MEMS and Optoelectronic Applications

The current trend in electronic packaging research is to integrate more functions into one package, reduce electrical path parasitic, and increase the heat conduction in order to make the final packaged system smaller, more reliable, more functional and more complete, while keeping the packaging cost low. In this trend, unconventional devices ...

From MEMS to NEMS: Scaling Cantilever Sensors

This thesis studies the effects of scaling on the characterisation and readout of micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) to nano-electro mechanical systems (NEMS). In particular it focuses on cantilever, which is a basic device building block and an important transducer in many sensing applications. This thesis presents an overview of major...

Silicon Micromachined Vertical Structures for Nanoparticle Separation

In this thesis we described a new approach to design, fabricate, package and test three silicon based porous vertical structures for nanoparticle separations. These vertical structures stand in between two microfluidic channels. In these walls nano channels that connect the two adjacent microchannels are embedded. Fluid and small particles can...

MEMS monocrystalline-silicon based thermal devices for chemical and microfluidic applications

This thesis explores the employment of monocrystalline silicon in microsystems as an active material for different thermal functions, such as heat generation and heat transfer by conduction. In chapter 1 applications that need thermal micro devices, micro heaters and micro heat exchangers, are briefly introduced. The shortcomings of commonly...

Silicon MEMS for Detection of Liquid and Solid Fronts

High-precision manipulation of small-size objects is an attractive and challenging topic for both industrial production and fundamental scientific research. The capability of monitoring micro-samples during handling is essential to the accuracy and efficiency of a handling system for both liquid and solid samples. When handling liquid samples...

Robust Wafer-Level Thin-Film Encapsulation (Packaging) of Microstructures (MEMS) using Low Stress PECVD Silicon Carbide

This paper presents a new low-cost, CMOS-compatible and robust wafer-level encapsulation technique developed using a stress-optimised PECVD SiC as the capping and sealing material, imparting harsh environment capability. This technique has been applied for the fabrication and encapsulation of a wide variety of surface- and thin-SOI...

SOI Digital Accelerometer Based on Pull-in Time Configuration

The operation principle, design, fabrication and measurement results of a quasi digital accelerometer fabricated on a thin silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate is presented. The accelerometer features quasi-digital output, therefore eliminating the need for analogue signal conditioning. The accelerometer can be directly interfaced to digital...

Simple optical characterisation for biomimetic micromachined silicon strain-sensing structure

This paper presents an on-going work to develop micromachined silicon-based strain sensor inspired from the campaniform sensillum of insects. We present simple optical setup for the characterisation of a membrane-in-recess structure as an early stage in mimicking the natural sensor. The microstructure is a 500 nm-thick SiO2/SiN circular membrane...

3D Align overlay verification using glass wafers

In the MEMS world, increasing attention is being given to 3D devices requiring dual-sided processing. This requires lithography tools that are able to align a wafer to both its back side as front side. Overlay describes how well front and back side layers are positioned with respect to each other. Currently there is no simple and fast method to...