Talk at MEMS Executive Congress US highlights new technologies

Alissa M. Fitzgerald, PHD gave an interesting talk at the MEMS Executive Congress 2015 in Napa, CA about some ongoing research. Alissa is the principal at AMFitzgerald & Associates (Burlingame, CA) – a consulting firm specializing in custom MEMS sensor development from strategy to prototyping.

She discussed five R&D efforts. Understand, all of these devices are in research and will not be available for 3 to 7 years, but there are some very interesting technologies.

• Navigation-grade gyros in development at national Tsing University. They offer improved accuracy which could potentially augment GPS for navigation.
• Receivers with zero quiescent power being developed at UC Berkeley. They use a non-linear mechanical amplifier with a zero power “listen” mode and activation at a threshold event.
• A GaN resonator with low-loss that is suitable for high power applications that’s being worked on at The University of Michigan. This could be used in RF filters and power devices.
• A graphene FET gas sensor, again at U. of California Berkeley, that can be used for NH₃ , NO₂ , H₂ O, CH₃ OH. It features microwatt power and selective gas sensing using a single FET.

Fig. 1: Cross-sectional view of flexible graphene FET gas sensor  from U.C.. Berkeley with inset showing  an array of 9×9 as-fabricated  sensors on a flexible polyimide substrate.

• Biodegradable sensors and batteries being looked at by University of Pennsylvania and Georgia Tech researchers. The devices dissolve harmlessly when exposed to water and may be used for medical applications.

Alissa can be contacted at www.amfitzgerald.com.