Reciprocating Geared Mechanism With Compliant Suspension

Compliant Continuous-Locking Micro Mechanism: Design of a Locking Mechanism for Frequency Tuning

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) often require tuning to correct for fabrication errors such as changed dimensions or to adapt for a different scenario such as changed temperature. To prevent continuous power consumption for maintaining system behavior, a locking system can be added which does not require any power during operation. A new...

Development of Nanotools for Applications in (sub-)Femtofluidics and Graphene Technologies

Properties of matter at the nano-scale may be very different from the ones observed at the macro-scale. The continuous variation of characteristics with diminishing size results in relevant changes in behavior. Similarly, these changes are caused by the rise of completely new phenomena (i.e. quantum confinement). Nanoscience can offer an...

In-Plane Displacement Detection With Picometer Accuracy on a Conventional Microscope

In this paper, we present a new method for detecting in-plane displacements in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) with an unprecedented sub-ångström accuracy. We use a curve-fitting method that is commonly employed in spectroscopy to find peak positions in a spectrum. We fit a function to the intensity profile of the image of a silicon beam...

Graphene - Propagating Wave Interaction by means of Surface Acoustic Waves (SAW) Devices

Not available because of confidentiality

Design and Feasibility Test of a Microfluidic MEMS for an Integrated Light and Scanning Electron Microscope

Nowadays both fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy are highly developed imaging techniques that are commonly used in many fields of research. As both techniques have their own strengths and weaknesses, a combination of both techniques can complement each other in certain fields of research. The combination of these two imaging...

Feasibility Study and Design of AFM Production Wafer Calibration Method using Electrostatic Pull-in Instability

The Design, Fabrication and Analysis of a MEMS-based In-plane Tensile Device (optimized for Monolayer Graphene)

Not available because of confidentiallity

6 DOF Force and Torque Sensor for Micro-manipulation Applications

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of a piezoresistive 6 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) force and torque sensor to be used in micro-manipulation. The mechanical structure of the device consists of 7 suspended beams and a calibration structure, which can be replaced by micro-manipulation tools such as micro-grippers or...

Modeling Strategies for Electro-Mechanical Microsystems with Uncertainty Quantification

Microsystems are very small sensors and actuators, manufactured with the same technology as computer chips. Well known applications of these machines are the acceleration sensors in the Wii game console and the iPhone. At the micrometer length scales of microsystems the physical forces behave different when compared to devices operating in the...

Challenges in the Assembly and Handling of Thin Film Capped MEMS Devices

This paper discusses the assembly challenges considering the design and manufacturability of a Wafer Level Thin Film Package in MEMS applications. The assembly processes are discussed. The loads associated with these processes are illustrated and evaluated. Numerical calculations are combined with experimental observations in order to estimate...

Thermal Actuation for Precision Micro Motion and Positioning

The primary goal of this research was to study the feasibility of a thermal micro actuator for improved tracking performance of a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), and the feasibility of thermal actuation for precision micro motion and positioning in general. The fast dynamics of the micro actuator allows it to quickly correct position errors and thus...

Design, Fabrication and Characterization of a MEMS Thermal Displacement Sensor

This thesis is a part of the CLEMPS (Closed Loop Embedded MEMS-based Precision Stage) project. Within this project a MEMS-stage should be positioned using a feedback (displacement) signal with 10-nm accuracy over a 100 ?m range. This thesis investigates if thermal sensing can be used as a reliable sensing mechanism within the CLEMPS project....