Ionic electroactive polymer for organs-on-chip applications

An organ-on-chip (OoC) is a microelectromechanical (MEMS) device that aims to recapitulate in-vitro the physiology of the smallest functional unit of an organ in order to perform drug analysis or study disease models. OoCs are very complex systems that require actuation and sensing capabilities within controlled and delicate environment. The...

Miniature sensorized platform for engineered heart tissues

The high death toll of cardiovascular diseases worldwide and the lack of effective treatments for them are the main motivation for developing alternative and more efficient models for cardiac drug development and disease research. The missing link between current laboratory research on static in vitro and animal models and the clinical stage...

Integrated silicon carbide sun position sensor system-on-chip for space applications

Superconducting Funnelled Through-Silicon Vias for Quantum Applications

System downscaling, 3D integration, and increasing functionalities are the main challenges that integrated circuits and MEMS technology have dealt with in the past decade. Advanced packaging schemes and interconnect technologies are some of the successful approaches to tackle the challenges. These issues also extend to modern designs such as...

MEMS Solutions For More Than Illumination

The development of solid state lighting (SSL) has been involving with improving the luminaire efficiency and integrating non-luminous functions, also known as More than Illumination. The objective of this thesis is to investigate different solutions for the concept of More than Illumination for SSL applications, to combine general lighting with...

Design, fabrication and characterizations of AlGaN/GaN heterostructure sensors

The microelectronics industry, next to the powerful, continuously scaling of integrated circuits, is currently evolving in the diversification of integrated functions, generally referred to as more than Moore (MtM). MtM concerns all technologies enabling microsystems to be elevated to a higher integration level, and with small package size,...

Ultra-thin mems fabricated tynodes for electron multiplication

For decades, photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) have been the most common choice in single photon detection, covering the spectral range from deep-ultraviolet to nearinfrared. PMT is a vacuum tube with three crucial components: photocathode, chain of dynodes and anode. At the photocathode, photons are converted to electrons in a photoelectric effect,...

Monolithic integration of silicon and polymer microstructures for Organ-on-Chip applications

Drug development is a complex, time-consuming (10 - 15 years) and expensive process. For a new medicine to reach the market, the net expenses covered by the pharmaceutical industry have been estimated to be around $2.6 billion. Nevertheless, the risk of finding adverse effects or toxicity cases once the drug is already on the market is still...

A single-chip micro-opto-electro-mechanical system for optical coherence tomography imaging

Surface Acoustic Mode Aluminum Nitride Transducer for micro-size liquid sensing applications

The thesis focuses on the investigation of thin-film surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices for liquid sensing applications. The piezoelectric material is a thin film of Aluminum Nitride (AlN), a CMOS compatible material, deposited by pulse DC reactive sputtering technique. A CMOS compatible process is developed and employed to fabricate the AlN/Si...

Carbon nanotube based solutions for on-chip thermal management

The performances of microelectronic and optoelectronic devices are often severely limited by high temperatures and insufficient heat management. Therefore, when considering device fabrication and packaging, it is important to select materials based on their thermal performance. The increasing demand for more integrated functionality and...

Flexible CMOS Single-Photon Avalanche Diode Image Sensor Technology

Liquid Silicon for Printed Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors on Paper