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[Lab image] Microelectromechanical Systems Laboratory (MEMS Laboratory)
Heads: Gary Fedder and Kaigham Gabriel
Contact: Mary L Moore

Mailing address:
Carnegie Mellon University
Electrical & Computer Engineering
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Location:
HH 1207

For more information, see this lab's homepage.

Jump to: Lab Description | Personnel | Projects | Publications

Lab Description

Our research group designs, fabricates, and tests microdevices that are primarily made using a process in which conventional foundry CMOS is followed by simple micromachining steps. This process provides us with high-performance electronics integrated on a chip with electrostatically actuated microstructures, capacitive and piezoresistive sensors, and polysilicon thermal heaters. Projects include micromechanisms for magnetic probe-based data storage, accelerometers and gyroscopes for inertial sensing, and ciliary sensors for tactile and acoustic imaging. Of particular interest is how large arrays of these sensors and actuators may improve overall system-level performance. Issues include system design and integration, distributed control and communication, and interfacing to the environment.

MEMS are coupled multi-domain systems and, therefore, are difficult to design without expertise in a diverse set of fields. To address this problem, MEMS designers and CAD developers work closely together in a synergetic research environment in our lab. We are developing a multi-domain hierarchical design methodology to speed up the design cycle. A MEMS schematic is being developed in which mechanical, electromechanical, and electronic elements are graphically interconnected, resulting in rapid simulation and evaluation of designs. We are also modeling topologies for common MEMS applications, such as accelerometry, to codify design constraints for use in automated synthesis tools.

Personnel [Past members]

Name Title Email Address
Mehdi Asheghi Professor, MechE masheghi@andrew.cmu.edu
Bikram Baidya PhD Student, ECE bbaidya@ece.cmu.edu
Jim Bain Research Engineer, ECE jbain@ece.cmu.edu
Sarah Bedair Masters Student, ECE sbedair@andrew.cmu.edu
William Benard PhD Student, ECE wbenard@andrew.cmu.edu
Shawn Blanton Assistant Professor, ECE blanton@ece.cmu.edu
Jay Brotz Masters Student, ECE jbrotz@andrew.cmu.edu
Richard's personal homepage Richard Carley Professor, ECE lrc@andrew.cmu.edu
Nilmoni Deb PhD Student, ECE ndeb@ece.cmu.edu
Gary's personal homepage Gary Fedder Prof. of ECE & Robotics;Director of ICES, RI/ICES fedder@ece.cmu.edu
Kevin Frederick Masters Student, ECE kevinf@cmu.edu
Kaigham's personal homepage Kaigham Gabriel Professor, RI/ECE kgabriel@ece.cmu.edu
Dave's personal homepage Dave Greve Professor, ECE greve@ece.cmu.edu
Steinar Hauan Assistant Professor, ChemE/ICES hauan@cmu.edu
Kai He Research Programmer, ECE khe@ece.cmu.edu
Sitaraman Iyer PhD Student, ECE sita@ece.cmu.edu
Akash Jain PhD Student, ECE
Qi Jing PhD Student, ECE qjing@ece.cmu.edu
Selena Joe Masters Student, ECE sjoe@andrew.cmu.edu
Aaron Gilad Kusne Masters Student, ECE akusne@andrew.cmu.edu
Qiao Lin Professor, MechE qlin@andrew.cmu.edu
Ryan Magargle Masters Student, ECE rmagargl@andrew.cmu.edu
Wansuree Massagram PhD Student, ECE wansuree@andrew.cmu.edu
Tamal's personal homepage Tamal Mukherjee Research Engineer, and Assistant Director, CEDA, ECE tamal@ece.cmu.edu
John Neumann Postdoctoral Fellow, ECE jneumann@ece.cmu.edu
Altuga Oz Masters Student, ECE
Anton Pfeiffer PhD Student, ChemE
Todd Przybycien Professor, ChemE todd@andrew.cmu.edu
Deepa Ramachandran Masters Student, ECE
Alan Rosenbloom Research Engineer, ECE alan2@andrew.cmu.edu
Suresh Santhanam Research Technician, ECE santh@ece.cmu.edu
Vivek Saraf Masters Student, ECE vksaraf@andrew.cmu.edu
Tuviah (Ed) Schlesinger Professor, ECE ed@ece.cmu.edu
Lawrence Schultz Senior Research Engineer schultz+@cs.cmu.edu
Michael Sperling Masters Student, ECE mas5@andrew.cmu.edu
Janet Stillman Masters Student, ECE jstillma@andrew.cmu.edu
Elias Towe Professor, ECE/MSE
Michael Vladimer Masters Student, ECE mvladime@andrew.cmu.edu
Victor Weedn Principal Research Scientist, ECE weedn@cmu.edu
Gilbert Wong Masters Student, ECE gcwong@ece.cmu.edu
Shi-Chune Yao Professor, MechE sy0d@andrew.cmu.edu
Keivan Etessam Yazdani PhD Student, ECE kyazdani@andrew.cmu.edu

Current Projects [Past Projects]

Application Specific Integrated MEMS Process Service - Creating the design, fabrication and characterization support for enabling integration of MEMS and CMOS to span from low cost prototyping to high volume production.
Circuit Extraction from MEMS Layout - We are developing a MEMS extraction module which reads in the geometric description of the layout structure and reconstructs the corresponding schematic.
Foundation for MEMS Synthesis - shorten MEMS development cycle
High-Aspect-Ratio CMOS Micromachining Process - We have developed an integrated CMOS- MEMS process in which electrostatically actuated microstructures with high-aspect-ratio composite-beam suspensions are fabricated using conventional CMOS processing.
Integrated MEMS Inertial Measurement Unit - Developing a monolithic inertial measurement unit that exploits integrated-microdevice CAD tools to achieve superior system performance over individual microdevices.
Resonator Synthesis - We have developed a resonator synthesis module; the first in a series of synthesis modules to overcome the lack of MEMS Cell Libraries.
Schematic Design for MEMS - We have developed nodal simulation software to enable a structured representation for MEMS design using a hierarchical set of MEM components.
Ultra-High-Density Data Cache for Low-Power Communications - Demonstrating technology for a 10 GB/cm2 rewritable data storage system using MEMS-based actuators and magnetic recording.

Recent publications [View all 31 publications]

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