Next Generation Electromechanical Sensors

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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.