Research and Education in Development of Multifunctional Sensors and MEMS Devices.

摘要

We have investigated the growth of a family of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) type materials for MEMS and sensors applications. We successfully demonstrated the growth of high quality (011) PZT single perovskite phase films on ZnO/glass substrates with an MgO buffer seed layer. A butterfly shape of the capacitance curves were exhibited in the capacitance-voltage measurements. We demonstrated several flexible ways to produce three-dimensional nanostructure stacking with ultrathin film deposition to achieve high degree of freedom in fabrication and high sensitivity detection. We developed a three-dimensional SnO2 ZnO hybrid nanostructures composites that is suitable for vapor/gas sensing. We fabricated Flexural Plate Wave that is highly sensitive to surface perturbations and indirectly sense analytes by detecting mass changes on the sensing plate surface with a sensitivity of 0.0424 m2/g. In addition, we fabricated thin-film bulk acoustic resonator, where we investigated the influence of the PZT layer thinness on the system s resonance frequency. A functionally modified bimorph actuator with enhanced UAV aerodynamics and maneuverability was fabricated. Many graduate and undergraduate underrepresented minority students were supported and trained on MEMS and materials growth, synthesis and characterization. Several seminars and professional development were organized. Our STEM outreach activities reached over 6,000 K- 12 students.