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SonicMEMS

Our Work

We have developed tools and technolo

Publications

Radioisotope thin films for power

Insect Based Microsystems

Our Work

Projects

We have developed tools and technolo

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Ultrasonic Actuation of Micromachines

We have developed tools and technology to actuate surface micromachines using die-bonded piezoelectric plates using both inertial and stress gradients at the surface micromachine anchors. This actuation mechanism allows for very low voltage actuation at resonances, and for lower-cost MEMS implementation, eliminating the need for high voltages and high currents associated with chip-scale electrostatic and magnetic actuators. We are developing ultrasonic motors utilizing acoustic streaming for reliable micromachine operations. We are also using actuation concepts to realize mirror tiles for Concentrating Solar Power systems.
Publications

Publications

Click here to view publications.
Radioisotope thin films for power

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Radioisotope thin films for power

Our group has invented the seemingly perpetual, self-reciprocating cantilever (SRC) that oscillates under electrostatic forces from charges emitted by thin-films of 63Ni radioisotopes. The 63Ni half-life of 100.2 years could enable 100s of years of operation. The collected charges generate an electrostatic force that pulls the cantilever towards the charging electrode and results in a much faster release of electromechanical stored energy, on the time scale of milliseconds to nanoseconds. Only miniscule amounts (1-5 milliCuries) of the chemically safe radioisotope are needed, due to inherent power amplification in SRC. The SRC provides RF-power for wireless sensors that could operate inside the human body or deep inside concrete structures.
Insect Based Microsystems

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Insect Based Microsystems

Our group has developed EMIT (Early Metamorphosis Integration Technology), in which electronics and microsystems can be placed in the late pupae stages of insect growth. As the insect body is remade, the electronics is truly integrated with the tissue for reliable neuro and muscular interfaces. These interfaces can be used to understand and control insect flight, sensors, and biology. EMIT provides a new pathway for bio-electrical interface science, and eliminates the battery energy-density bottleneck for battery-powered UAVs.
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Self-powered Wireless Solar Tiles

Thermokinetic and ultrasonic assembly and actuation of mirrors, discovered in our lab, allows the actuation of very large arrays of small mirrors without any interconnects on the mirror plane. This low-bandwidth yet actuation with memory using friction, opens up pathways to solar reflector tiles consisting of small mirrors, instead of large bulky mirrors that have high installation and maintenance cost. To lower cost, we comstinue to explore methods of making MEMS mirrors from plastic to realize all plastic solar reflector tiles, that might cost less than silicon solar cells for pervasive solar power.
Hadi Hosseinzadegan Simple

Hadi Hosseinzadegan

Tip based nanofabrication with Nano Optical Ruler Imaging System.
Hamid Vajihollahi Simple

Hamid Vajihollahi

Member of the SonicMEMS lab, currently a visiting scientist. He is also the lead engineer on a renewable energy project that has been developed at Cornell University by Prof. Amit Lal's SonicMEMS Laboratory to use plastic based concentrating solar power (CSP) systems. Before coming to Cornell Hamid had the opportunity to work for one of the leaders in power generation and Turbo machinery industry, Siemens power generation, as aero design engineer in the R&D department. While at Siemens, Hamid had the advantage to experience various areas of energy engineering including development of next generation Gas Turbines and combined cycle power plant. From Finite Element Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis for upgrade packages of existing gas turbine projects to managing projects involving the development of next generation gas turbines. The most significant project that he was involved with as the assistant project manager was the development of alternative fuel gas turbines that could reduce the carbon footprint of GT power plants substantially. Hamid piloted a project on optimization of combined cycle power plant concentrating on the heat recovery steam generator components. Hamid also received six Sigma Black Belt manufacturing Certification, Product Development Processes Certificate and Process Management Certificate from Cornell University and Siemens Power Generation. He is also a recipient of the Siemens Product Engineering Recognition Award.
Ching-Ping Janet Shen Simple

Ching-Ping Janet Shen

Janet is developing neuromuscular interfaces to insects for realizing biological sensors and actuators.
Jason Hoople Simple

Jason Hoople

Ultrasonic micro-fluidic particle manipulation. Micro-fabrication. Jason is developing a device for ultrasonic separation and manipulation of micro and nano particles.
Kwame Amponsah Simple

Kwame Amponsah

Nanoelectromecahnical switches, MEMS electronics integration
Yuerui Larry Lu Simple

Yuerui Larry Lu

Applications of radioisotope thin films to lithography and microsystems. Larry is developing Self-Powered Electron Lithography, self-powered vacuum pumps, and gauges for ultra-low power diagnostics systems.
Manoj Pandey Simple

Manoj Pandey

Finite element modeling of microsystems, nonlinear and linear dynamics
Po-Cheng Chen Simple

Po-Cheng Chen

Micro-fabrication. Mix-Signal circuit design. Po is developing wireless neural interface, self-powered bio-sensor, and chip-scale high-energy particle accelerator control circuit.
Sirvani Piratla Simple

Sarvani Piratla

Highly integrated ultrasonic microsystems. Sarvani is developing ultrasonic micromotors and viscosity sensors.
Steven Tin Simple

Steven Tin

Radioisotope based power sources. Steven is exploring packaging concepts for radioisotope powered RF pulsers and power sources.
Siva Prasad Simple

Siva Prasad

Autonomous insect based air-vehicles and pneumatic power sources. Siva is developing techniques to utilize insects as aerodynamic power sources to control insect flight.
Yue Shi Simple

Yue Shi

Yue is developing chip-scale high-energy particle accelerators. She has developed the concept for lateral electrical field guidance of high energy particles.
Amit Lal Simple

Amit Lal

Prof. Lal obtained his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Caltech in 1990. He obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. He conducted his doctoral research at the Berkeley Sensors and Actuators Center in the area of ultrasonic MEMS. After working at University of Wisconsin-Madison as an assistant professor, he is now a professor at Cornell University, in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He holds 17 patents and has published >145 research papers in the area of microsystem engineering. Most recently, he served as a Program Manager at DARPA in the Microsystems Technology Office, from 2005-2009. At DARPA he managed ten and started six new programs in the area of navigation, low-energy computation, bio-robotics, and atomic microsystems. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award, and with his students several best paper awards at the IEEE Ultrasonics and Frequency Control Symposium, and IEEE NEMS conferences. He is also a recipient of the Department of Defense Exceptional Service Award, and a Best Program Manager Award for his work at DARPA.In addition to School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Prof. Lal is a field member of Biomedical Engineering, and Applied Engineering Physics. He is a member of Cornell CCMR, NBTC, and KAUST-CU Center.
Precision and Accuracy in Microsyste

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Precision AND Accuracy in Microsystems

Atomic transition defined wavelengths and frequencies serve as the best sources of environment and fabrication insensitive sources of accuracy and precision. We have developed microfabricated alkali-metal vapor cells, which can be integrated with micro-lasers. Combining atomically stable laser radiation and temperature stabilized MEMS gratings, we can generate optical rulers as a guide for nano-fabrication, and detecting mass position. Currently, we are using NORIS as a tool for realizing massively parallel nanofabrication that is both accurate and precise over large substrates.
Radioisotope Powered Electron Lithog

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Radioisotope Powered Electron Lithography

E-beam lithography is too slow and requires vacuum, and imprint lithography require mechanical contact. To overcome these difficulties we have demonstrated the Self-Powered Electron Lithography (SPEL). Electrons emitted from radioisotope films expose resist through masks, achieving <33nm features. Since the radioisotope source can be arbitrarily large, one can envision printing nano-scale science and engineering on surfaces as large as airplane wings.
Nanoscale Electromechanical Systems

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Nanoscale Electromechanical Systems and Electronics

Nanoscale scaling of MEMS can be defined when at least one working dimension of the device is at the nanoscale. We are developing integration of active devices such as bipolar and junction transistors with MEMS devices. The device technology, compatible with high voltages encountered in MEMS, can be easily interfaced to CMOS as well. This technology can be used to realize low-power systems on insect platforms for example. We have realized two-gate lateral electromechanical switches that can switch with voltage as low as 250 micro-volts.
About

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High Intensity Ultrasonic Actuators and Probes

Under normal forces thin hair-like probes would buckle and break if inserted into stiff tissue. However, ultrasonic actuation stiffens the microprobes that sticks-slips inside tissue, for which we invented silicon-ultrasonic-horns with high-intensity ultrasonic motion and integrated sensors. Our MEMS research created the ability to insert micro multi-channel electrodes into various tissue for measurement and cutting. We have used the probes to measure (1) electrical potential in cardiac tissue, (2) electrical potential in neural tissues, (3) measure distribution of microtubules sizes, (4) and tissue viscosity.
SonicMEMS Info

Our Work

We have developed tools and technolo