MEMS and Nano

Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS)

Over the past 20 years, the application of microelectronic technology to the fabrication of mechanical devices has revolutionized the research in microsensors and microactuators. Micromachining technologies take advantage of batch processing to address the manufacturing and performance requirements of the sensor industry.

Professor Liepmann inspecting new MEMS device with student. The extraordinary versatility of semiconductor materials and the miniaturization of VLSI patterning techniques promise new sensors and actuators with increased capabilities and improved performance-to-cost ratio, which far surpass conventionally machined devices. Our faculty is actively involved in collaborative research efforts in Silicon Valley, the heart of the semiconductor and MEMS industries. These collaborations draw heavily upon our expertise in mechanical engineering as it applies to a broad range of issues in miniaturization, including solid, materials, design, manufacturing, fluidics, heat transfer, dynamics, control, environmental, and bioengineering. In addition, close ties to other departments and research centers such as BSAC (Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center) further strengthen our program.

Research Areas

MEMS design issues, including computer-aided-design
MEMS manufacturing issues, including surface and bulk-micromachining
High-Aspect-Ratio Micro Structure Technology
Non-Silicon-Based microfabrication processes
Microsensors, including inertial, magnetic recording, optical, and physical sensors
Microactuators, including electrostatic, thermal, bubble generation, electrolysis types
Microinstruments, including grippers, motors, needles, mixers, pumps, coolers, and I.C. engines
Solid mechanics issues in MEMS, including stiction, materials, fatigue, and tribology
Fluidic issues in MEMS, including mixing, CFD, pumping, filtration, flow control
Heat transfer issues in MEMS, including combustion, cooling, thermal efficiency, microscale energy transport, thermal design of micro and nanodevices
BioMEMS, including blood rheology, cell identification, DNA positioning, DNA and protein recognition and detection.
System integration, including microassembly, microtesting, and mciropackaging

Faculty members involved in MEMS are C. Fernandez-Pello, Ralph Greif, Costas Grigoropoulos, R. Horowitz, G. C. Johnson, K. Komvopolous, D. Liepmann, L. Lin, A. Majumdar, A. P. Pisano, Lydia Sohn and Xiang Zhang.

Research Facilities

Within Mechanical Engineering, we have specialized testing laboratories for MEMS research. In addition, the Berkeley Microfabrication Laboratory, located in the EECS department, is a top-to-bottom prototyping lab for MEMS, advanced silicon devices, compound semiconductor devices, and low temperature superconductors. With more than 10,000 square feet of class-100 clean room space, this state-of-the-art lab is equipped with complete systems for MEMS manufacturing needs. Lab facilities include furnaces, LPCVD tubes for MOS and sensors; projection and contact lithography equipment (pattern generator, aligners and steppers); spin-coaters; sputtering and evaporating systems; plasma etchers (including deep reactive ion etching); chemical-mechanical polishing; rapid thermal processing systems; measurement systems; wafer bonding (anodic and flip-chip) systems; wafer dicing saw, and wire bonders.

Nanoengineering

Significant breakthroughs over the past two decades in a wide range of disciplines have generated new interest in science and engineering at nanometer scales. The invention of the scanning tunneling microscope, the discovery of the fullerene family of molecules, the development of materials with size-dependent properties, and the ability to encode with and manipulate biological molecules such as DNA, are a few of the crucial developments that have changed this field.

Professor Majumdar examines a scanning thermal electron microscope, the most advanced of its kind. Continued research in nanoscale science and engineering promises to revolutionize many fields and lead to a new technological base and infrastructure that will have major impact on the US and world economies. The impact will be felt in areas as diverse as computing and information technology, health care and biotechnology, environment, energy, transportation, and space exploration, to name a few.

Our department is committed to the development of nanoengineering, with several groups conducting research in this field. Some key areas of research include nanoinstrumentation nano energy conversion, nano bioengineering and nano computing storage.

The field of nanoengineering is highly interdisciplinary, requiring knowledge drawn from a variety of scientific and engineering departments. In addition to traditional courses covering fundamentals of mechanical engineering, our department offers a series of specialized courses in microscale thermophysics, micro and nanoscale tribology, cellular and sub-cellular level transport phenomena and mechanics, physicochemical hydrodynamics of ultra-thin fluid films, and microfabrication.

Faculty members involved in Nanoengineering are D. Bogy, V. Carey, H. Dharan, C. Fernandez-Pello, M. Frenklach, R. Greif, C. Grigoropoulos, R. Horowitz, K. Komvopoulos, L. Lin, A. Majumdar, A. Pisano, L. Pruitt, B. Rubinsky, L. Sohn and Xiang Zhang.