Many scientists and engineers are turning to lab-on-a-chip systems for cheaper and high throughput analysis of chemical reactions and biomolecular interactions. In this work, we developed several lab-on-a-chip modules based on novel manipulations of individual microbeads inside microchannels. The first manipulation method employs arrays of soft ferromagnetic patterns fabricated inside a microfluidic channel and subjected to an external rotating magnetic field. We demonstrated that the system can be used to assemble individual beads (1-3µm) from a flow of suspended beads into a regular array on the chip, hence improving the integrated electrochemical detection of biomolecules bound to the bead surface. In addition, the microbeads can follow the external magnet rotating at very high speeds and simultaneously orbit around individual soft magnets on the chip. We employed this manipulation mode for efficient sample mixing in continuous microflow. Furthermore, we discovered a simple but effective way of transporting the microbeads on-chip in the rotating field. Selective transport of microbeads with different size was also realized, providing a platform for effective sample separation on a chip. The second manipulation method integrates magnetic and dielectrophoretic manipulations of the same microbeads. The device combines tapered conducting wires and fingered electrodes to generate desirable magnetic and electric fields, respectively. By externally programming the magnetic attraction and dielectrophoretic repulsion forces, out-of-plane oscillation of the microbeads across the channel height was realized. Furthermore, we demonstrated the tweezing of microbeads in liquid with high spatial resolutions by fine-tuning the net force from magnetic attraction and dielectrophoretic repulsion of the beads. The high-resolution control of the out-of-plane motion of the microbeads has led to the invention of massively parallel biomolecular tweezers.

Variable speed drives allow for more precise speed control of induction motors, are of high power factor, and offer fast response characteristics, compared to older technologies, such as motor-generator sets and eddy current clutches. However, due to the high switching frequencies as well as the high dV/dt in the output increased dielectric stresses are produced in the insulation system of the motor they supply. Due to the use of these solid state drives there have been concerns of premature failure in large, medium and high voltage, motors. To fully understand and deal with these concerns requires studying the degradation mechanisms, in the insulation system, caused by these drives; which, on an actual motor is both extremely costly as well as impractical. Therefore, coil samples which accurately represent the construction of the actual insulation system, must be aged and studied instead. In addition, to ideally replicate the aging process, the same waveform that the motor is subjected to must be applied to these samples. As a result of this requirement, a low power, two-level, high voltage PWM inverter has been built to replicate the most important characteristics of the output waveform of a variable speed drive. This power modulator allows for testing the insulation systems considering a real PWM waveform in which both the fast pulses and the fundamental low frequency are included. The results of these tests show that the effects of PWM waveforms cannot be entirely replicated by a unipolar pulse generator.

Variable speed drives allow for more precise speed control of induction motors, are of high power factor, and offer fast response characteristics, compared to older technologies, such as motor-generator sets and eddy current clutches. However, due to the high switching frequencies as well as the high dV/dt in the output increased dielectric stresses are produced in the insulation system of the motor they supply. Due to the use of these solid state drives there have been concerns of premature failure in large, medium and high voltage, motors. To fully understand and deal with these concerns requires studying the degradation mechanisms, in the insulation system, caused by these drives; which, on an actual motor is both extremely costly as well as impractical. Therefore, coil samples which accurately represent the construction of the actual insulation system, must be aged and studied instead. In addition, to ideally replicate the aging process, the same waveform that the motor is subjected to must be applied to these samples. As a result of this requirement, a low power, two-level, high voltage PWM inverter has been built to replicate the most important characteristics of the output waveform of a variable speed drive. This power modulator allows for testing the insulation systems considering a real PWM waveform in which both the fast pulses and the fundamental low frequency are included. The results of these tests show that the effects of PWM waveforms cannot be entirely replicated by a unipolar pulse generator.

Conventionally discrete passive components like capacitors, resistors, and inductors are surface-mounted on top of the printed circuit boards (PCBs). To match the ever increasing demands of miniaturization, cost reduction, and high performance in microelectronic industry, a promising approach is to integrate passive components into the board during PCB manufacture. Because they are embedded inside multilayer PCBs, such components are called embedded passives. This work focuses on the materials design, development and processing of polymer-based dielectric nanocomposites for embedded capacitor applications. The methodology of this approach is to combine the advantages of the polymer and the filler to satisfy the electric, dielectric, mechanical, fabrication, and reliability requirements for embedded capacitors. Restrained by poor adhesion and poor thermal stress reliability at high filler loadings, currently polymer-ceramic composites can only achieve a dielectric constant of less than 50. In order to increase the dielectric constant to above 50, effects of high-k polymer matrix, bimodal fillers, and dispersing agent are systematically investigated. Surface functionalization of nanofiller particles and modification of epoxy matrix with a secondary rubberized epoxy to form sea-island structure are proposed to enhance the dielectric constant, adhesion and high-temperature thermal stress reliability of high-k composites. To obtain photodefinable high-k composites, fundamental understanding of the photopolymerization of the novel epoxy-ceramic composite photoresist is addressed. While the properties of high-k composites largely depend on the polymer matrix, the fillers can also drastically affect the material properties. Carbon black- and carbon nanotubes-filled ultrahigh-k polymer composites are investigated as the candidate materials for embedded capacitors. Dielectric composites based on percolation typically show a high dielectric constant, and a high dielectric loss which is not desirable for high frequency applications. To achieve a reproducible low-loss percolative composite, a novel low-cost core-shell particle filled high-k percolative composite is developed. The nanoscale insulating shells allow the electrons in the metallic core to tunnel through it, and thereby the composites exhibit a high dielectric constant as a percolation system; on the other hand, the insulating oxide layer restricts the electron transfer between filler particles, thus leading to a low loss as in a polymer-ceramic system.

This dissertation deals with the development of RF MEMS switches with novel materials and micromachining techniques for the RF and microwave applications. To enable the integration of RF and microwave components on CMOS grade silicon, finite ground coplanar waveguide transmission line on CMOS grade silicon wafer were first studied using micromachining techniques. In addition, several RF MEMS capacitive switches were developed with novel materials. A novel approach for fabricating low cost capacitive RF MEMS switches using directly photo-definable high dielectric constant metal oxides was developed, these switches exhibited significantly higher isolation and load capacitances as compared to comparable switches fabricated using a simple silicon nitride dielectric. The second RF MEMS switch developed is on a low cost, flexible liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate. Its very low water absorption (0.04%), low dielectric loss and multi-layer circuit capability make it very appealing for RF Systems-On-a-Package (SOP). Also, a tunable RF MEMS switch on a sapphire substrate with BST as dielectric material was developed, the BST has a very high dielectric constant (>300) making it very appealing for RF MEMS capacitive switches. The tunable dielectric constant of BST provides a possibility of making linearly tunable MEMS capacitor-switches. For the first time a capacitive tunable RF MEMS switch with a BST dielectric and its characterization and properties up to 40 GHz was presented. Dielectric charging is the main reliability issue for MEMS switch, temperature study of dielectric polarization effect of RF MEMS was investigated in this dissertation. Finally, integration of two reconfigurable RF circuits with RF MEMS switches were discussed, the first one is a reconfigurable dual frequency (14GHz and 35 GHz) antenna with double polarization using RF MEMS switches on a multi-layer LCP substrate; and the second one is a center frequency and bandwidth tunable filter with BST capacitors and RF MEMS switches on sapphire substrate.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

The performance and power scaling of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors (MOSFETs) has been historically achieved through shrinking the gate length of transistors for over three decades. As Si complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) scaling is approaching the physical and optical limits, the emerging technology involves new materials for the gate dielectrics and the channels as well as innovative structures. III-V materials have much higher electron mobility compared to Si, which can potentially provide better device performance. Hence, there have been tremendous research activities to explore the prospects of III-V materials for CMOS applications. Nevertheless, the key challenges for III-V MOSFETs with high-[kappa] oxides such as the lack of high quality, thermodynamically stable insulators that passivate the gate oxide/III-V interface still hinder the development of III-V MOS devices. The main focus of this dissertation is to develop the proper processes and structures for III-V MOS devices that result in good interface quality and high device performance. Firstly, fabrication processes and device structures of surface channel MOSFETs were investigated. The interface quality of In[subscript 0.53]Ga[subscript 0.47]As MOS devices was improved by developing the gate-last process with more than five times lower interface trap density (D[subscript it]) compared to the ones with the gate-first process. Furthermore, the optimum substrate structure was identified for inversion-type In[subscript 0.53]Ga[subscript 0.47]As MOSFETs by investigating the effects of channel doping concentration and thickness on device performance. With the proper process and channel structures, the first inversion-type enhancement-mode In[subscript 0.53]Ga[subscript 0.47]As MOSFETs with equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of ~10 Å using atomic layer deposited (ALD) HfO₂ gate dielectric were demonstrated. The second part of the study focuses on buried channel InGaAs MOSFETs. Buried channel InGaAs MOSFETs were fabricated to improve the channel mobility using various barriers schemes such as single InP barrier with different thicknesses and InP/InAlAs double-barrier. The impacts of different high-[kappa] dielectrics were also evaluated. It has been found that the key factors enabling mobility improvement at both peak and high-field mobility in In[subscript 0.7]Ga[subscript 0.3]As quantum-well MOSFETs with InP/InAlAs barrier-layers are 1) the epitaxial InP/InAlAs double-barrier confining carriers in the quantum-well channel and 2) good InP/Al₂O₃/HfO₂ interface with small EOT. Record high channel mobility was achieved and subthreshold swing (SS) was greatly improved. Finally, InGaAs tunneling field-effect-transistors (TFETs), which are considered as the next-generation green transistors with ultra-low power consumption, were demonstrated with more than two times higher on-current while maintaining much smaller SS compared to the reported results. The improvements are believed to be due to using the In[subscript 0.7]Ga[subscript 0.3]As tunneling junction with a smaller bandgap and ALD HfO₂ gate dielectric with a smaller EOT. / text

Nanolaminate dielectrics combine two or more insulating materials in a many-layered film. These structures can be made to significantly outperform films composed of a single one of their constituent materials by adjusting the composition ratio, arrangement, and size of the component layers. In this work, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used to fabricate pure-oxide and nanolaminate dielectrics based upon Al₂O₃ and ZrO₂. The relative performance of these dielectrics is investigated with respect to application as gate dielectrics for ZnSnO (ZTO) and InGaZnO (IGZO) amorphous-oxide-semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistors (TFTs). AOS TFTs are promising candidates for commercial use in applications such as active-matrix displays and e-paper. It was found that the layer thickness, relative composition, and interfacial material all had an effect on TFT performance. Several variants of the Al₂O₃/ZrO₂ nanolaminate were found to exhibit superior properties to either Al₂O₃ or ZrO₂ alone. / Graduation date: 2011

Dielectric materials are used as spacers in antennas. The design of the dielectric determines the properties of the antenna. The insertion of high dielectric materials in a specific pattern into a low dielectric matrix material is one means to accomplish this. This thesis studies the means to insert metal cylinders (wire or nails) into polymer foams to produce such a material. Depending on the antenna properties desired, the patterns and number of nails varies tremendously. To decrease the manufacturing time and, therefore, the cost of creating these materials, an automatic machine capable of rapidly inserting wires to a predetermined pattern is developed. This thesis has two parts. In the first part, the ballistic impact of nails into foam is modeled. Experimental observations of the nails impacting the foam are used to verify the model. Penetration equations are developed to express the penetration capability of a nail into foam. All of this allows one to predict the forces required for a nail to be inserted into foam to a desired depth, thereby facilitating manufacture of these dielectric materials. In the second part, a fully automatic nail insertion device is designed, fabricated, and tested with the experimental tests used as control settings.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-143). Also available on the World Wide Web.