Modeling and Characterization of Pre-Charged Collapse-Mode CMUTs

Recently, the applications of ultrasound transducers expanded from high-end diagnostic tools to point of care diagnostic devices and wireless power receivers for implantable devices. These new applications additionally require that the transducer technology must comply to biocompatibility and manufacturing scalability. In this respect,...

Design and Manufacturing of an In-Package Relative Humidity Sensor with Multi-Width Interdigital Electrodes Towards Enhanced Sensitivity for Characterization of Packaging Encapsulation Materials

This study presents a novel manufacturing process and design towards an enhanced sensitivity of an in-package relative humidity sensor. The device comprises multi-width interdigital electrodes which make oxide pillars appear during wet chemical etching in the fabrication process. Those oxide pillars appear only in wider areas while completely...

Accessing lithium−oxygen battery discharge products in their native environments via transmission electron microscopy grid electrode

High-fidelity and facile ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterization of lithium−oxygen (Li−O₂) batteries is still limited by challenges in preserving the native environment of Li−O₂ discharge products. The extreme reactivity and moisture sensitivity of the discharge products means that they are...

An Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC)-Driven Linear Peristaltic Microfluidic Pump

Microfluidic devices and micro-pumps are increasingly necessitated in many fields ranging from untethered soft robots, to pharmaceutical and biomedical technology. While realization of such devices is limited by miniaturization constraints of conventional actuators, these restrictions can be resolved by using smart material transducers...

Comments on "Compact, Energy-Efficient High-Frequency Switched Capacitor Neural Stimulator With Active Charge Balancing" (vol 11, pg 878, 2017): Comments on 'Compact, energy-efficient high-frequency switched capacitor neural stimulator with active charge balancing (IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems (2017) 11:4 (878–888) DOI: 10.1109/TBCAS.2017.2694144)

This manuscript points out some mistakes in the Introduction and in the table of comparison of a paper already published in this journal by Hsu and Schmid [1]. Although the main claim of [1] is still preserved, we believe the paper needs to be rectified for scientific correctness of the work. In [1], the first High Frequency Switched...

Active sensing methods of ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC): Comparative study in frequency domain

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are soft transducers that bend in response to low-voltage input, and generate voltage in response to deformations. Their potential applications include compliant locomotion systems, small-scale robotics, energy harvesting and biomedical instrumentation. The materials are inherently compliant, simple to...

Immersion precipitation route towards high performance thick and flexible electrodes for Li-ion batteries

Enabling the transition to renewable power sources requires further optimization of batteries in terms of energy/power density and cost-effectiveness. Increasing the practical thickness of Li ion battery electrodes not only can improve energy density on cell level but reduces manufacturing cost. However, thick electrodes exhibit sluggish...

A multiwell plate Organ-on-Chip (OOC) device for in-vitro cell culture stimulation and monitoring

This work presents the first multi-well plate that allows for simultaneous mechanical stimulation and electrical monitoring of multiple in-vitro cell cultures in parallel. Each well of the plate is equipped with an Organ-on-Chip (OOC) device consisting of a stretchable micro-electrode array (MEA). For the first time, a film assisted molding ...

Designing a 100 [aF/nm] capacitive transducer

The mechanical part of inertial sensors can be designed to have a large mechanical sensitivity, but also requires the transduction mechanism which translates this displacement. The overall system resolution in mechanical inertial sensors is dictated by the noise contribution of each stage and the magnitude of each sensitivity, see also Figure...

A 117DB in-Band CMRR 98.5DB SNR Capacitance-to-Digital Converter for Sub-NM Displacement Sensing with an Electrically Floating Target

This paper describes a high-performance Capacitance-to-Digital Converter (CDC) for sub-nm displacement sensing with an electrically floating target. Intended to be integrated into a displacement sensor probe, the CDC consumes only 560μW. It achieves 98.5dB SNR in a 1ms conversion time, which is 34 times more energy-efficient than the prior...

An experience with Chalcogenide memristors, and implications on memory and computer applications

Memristors are considered a promising emerging device that may improve some specific applications, like memories, or make feasible new ones, mainly alternative computing architectures. However, it is not a mature technology and their characteristics can vary significantly depending on their structures. Also, variability and reliability might...

A transfer-free wafer-scale CVD graphene fabrication process for MEMS/NEMS sensors

In this paper we report a novel transfer-free graphene fabrication process, which does not damage the graphene layer. Uniform graphene layers on 4" silicon wafers were deposited by chemical vapor deposition using the CMOS compatible Mo catalyst. Removal of the Mo layer after graphene deposition results in a transfer-free and controlled placement...