Next Generation Electromechanical Sensors

拟议的研究计划将沿着两个主要方向推进最先进的微纳米机电系统（MEMS）和（NEMS）。第一阶段将为大信号高频MEMS传感器和室温NEMS传感器的发展奠定技术框架。它将在此框架的基础上实现高灵敏度的MEMS和NEMS气体、化学和生物传感器。第二个重点将开发系统的方法来设计和实现在具有挑战性的条件下可以执行复杂功能的鲁棒MEMS执行器。它将实现这些方法来提供坚固的可变形微镜和微镊子。MEMS和NEMS是活跃的研究和创新领域。他们利用了一种相对成熟且具有成本效益的制造技术，引入了新颖的微机械（传感器和执行器），这些微机械不仅性能优于宏观机械，而且还引入了新的功能。在过去的十年中，他们完全改变了传感器市场，并在执行器市场取得了重大但有限的进展。提出的研究计划旨在通过组合非线性动力学分析工具和光学和电气计量实验工具来理解，控制和减少这些系统的复杂运动和响应的工程实践，释放MEMS / NEMS传感器和执行器的全部潜力。在接下来的5年里，它将进行如下所述的基础调查和设备开发。1)目前，传感器行业受到过时的传感器设计观念的阻碍。从历史上看，它必须将传感器限制在一个很小的（线性）范围内，其中单个常数（灵敏度）将刺激与输出信号（测量）联系起来。在当前的数字信号处理标准下，这是不必要的，它可以处理任意的刺激-测量关系。但该行业仍然固守线性概念，认为它是一种性能指标。这种约束限制了传感器的工作范围，以小信号（运动），从而降低了其测量质量：信噪比（SNR）。转向大信号传感器的新范例将增加信噪比，允许相同的传感器在响应相同的刺激时产生更大的信号（测量）。它将使传感器更健壮，减少信号调节要求，使传感器系统更简单，更便宜。该计划将奠定技术基础，并为传感器行业的下一阶段增长创造道路。2)结合复杂功能、低电压要求和全电检测与控制技术，开发MEMS致动器、微镊子和可变形微镜。这些驱动器将使微型物体（细胞和DNA）和自适应光学系统的新测试模式成为可能，用于从天文学到眼科的广泛应用。

The proposed research program will advance the state-of-the-art on micro and nano electromechanical systems (MEMS) and (NEMS) along two main thrusts. The first will lay a technical framework for the development of large signal and high-frequency MEMS sensors and room temperature NEMS sensors. It will build on this framework to realize high sensitivity MEMS and NEMS gas, chemical, and biological sensors. The second thrust will develop systematic methods to design and realize robust MEMS actuators that can perform complex functions under challenging conditions. It will implement those methods to deliver robust deformable micro mirrors and micro tweezers. MEMS and NEMS are active research and innovation areas just coming to their own. They have capitalized on a relatively mature and cost-effective fabrication technology to introduce novel micro-machines (sensors and actuators) that do not only outperform their macro counterparts, but also introduce new functionalities. They have completely transformed the sensor market over the last decade and made significant, but limited, inroads in the actuator markets. The proposed research program aims to unleash the full potential of MEMS / NEMS sensors and actuators by marshalling analytical tools of nonlinear dynamics and experimental tools of optical and electrical metrology to understand, control, and reduce to engineering practice the complex motions and responses of those systems. Over the next 5 years, it will undertake the fundamental investigations and device developments described below. 1) Currently, the sensor industry is hampered by obsolete notions on sensor design. Historically, it had to limit sensors to a small (linear) range where a single constant (sensitivity) relates the stimulus to the output signal (measurand). This is unnecessary now under the current standards of Digital Signal Processing that can handle arbitrary stimulus-measurand relationships. But the industry is still wedded to the concept of linearity to the point where it considers it a metric of performance. This constraint limits the sensor operating range to small signals (motions), thereby reducing the quality of their measurements: Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Moving to a new paradigm of Large Signal Sensors will increase the SNR, allowing the same sensor to produce larger signal (measurand) in response to the same stimulus. It will make sensors more robust, reduce the signal conditioning requirements, and make sensor systems simpler and cheaper. This program will lay the technical grounds and create a path for the next stage of the sensor industry growth. 2) We will develop MEMS actuators, micro tweezers and deformable micro mirrors, that combine complex functionality, low-voltage requirements, and all-electric detection and control techniques. Those actuators will enable novel test modalities of micro-objects (cells and DNA) and adaptive optics systems for a wide of applications from astronomy to ophthalmology.