Potential applications such as high intensity focused ultrasound in medical therapeutics require larger output pressures. To offer unprecedented acoustic output pressure in transmit without the limitations, Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer operation modes of collapse and collapse-snapback are introduced in literature. Both operation modes require the membrane to contact the substrate surface, which poses a problem on the durability of the membrane in terms of structural integrity and tribological property. Based on the additional requirements of these modes, diamond is proposed as the ultimate solution to be used as the membrane material. Mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of diamond are all in favor of its use in the microfabrication of CMUTs. This thesis introduces the design and test results of the first diamond-based CMUTs as an alternative to silicon and silicon nitride based CMUTs. Simulations are performed using Finite Element Methods (FEM) using a commercially available software package, ANSYS. The diamond-based CMUT is operated successfully both in air and immersion for the first time. Fully customizable in-house software is developed to command and control the test setup equipments for current dissertation and future work. Fresnel and Fraunhofer regions of the CMUT are characterized in sunflower oil using a combination of advanced hardware and software. The experimental results of radiation and diffraction for the diamond-based circular CMUT are verified by the theoretical calculations for a circular piston transducer. The results obtained from the first generation diamond-based CMUTs presented the diamond as a promising material for membranes in CMUTs.

Tonpilz-type transducers are the most commonly used projectors in underwater acoustic applications. However, no complete design approach is available in the literature for such transducers. The present study aims to fill this gap in the literature by providing a systematic design approach for the Tonpilz-type transducers. The proposed methodology involves the use of different analytical models and a finite element model of such transducers. Each model provides a different level of accuracy that is tightly correlated with the models complexity and computational cost. By using these models sequentially starting with the simplest and fastest model to yield an initial design and concluding with the most detailed and accurate model to yield an optimized final design the overall design time is reduced and greater flexibility is given to the designer. An overview of each of these four models is given. The constructed models are benchmarked against published experimental data. The overall design methodology is demonstrated by systematically applying the four models to design a Tonpilz-type transducer. Possible improvements to the proposed methodology are discussed.

The effects of microbubbles injection in the boundary layer of a turbulent channel flow are investigated. Electrolysis demonstrated to be an effective method to produce microbubbles with an average diameter of 30 ??m and allowed the placement of microbubbles at desired locations within the boundary layer. Measurement of velocity fluctuations and the instantaneous wall shear stress were carried out in a channel flow facility. The wall shear stress is an important parameter that can help with the characterization of the boundary layer. This parameter can be obtained indirectly by the measurement of the flow pressure at the wall. The wall shear stress in the channel was measured by means of three different independent methods: measurement of the pressure gradient by a differential pressure transducer, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), and an optical wall shear stress sensor. The three methods showed reasonable agreement of the wall shear stress values for single-phase flow. However, differences as skin friction reductions were observed when the microbubbles were injected. Several measurements of wall-pressure were taken at various Reynolds numbers that ranged from 300 up to 6154. No significant drag reduction was observed for flows in the laminar range; however, a drag reduction of about 16% was detected for turbulent Reynolds numbers. The wall-pressure measurements were shown to be a powerful tool for the measurement of drag reduction, which could help with the design of systems capable of controlling the skin friction based on feedback given by the wall-pressure signal. The proposed measurement system designed in this work has capabilities for application in such diverse fields as multiphase flows, drag reduction, stratified flows, heat transfer among others. The synchronization between independent systems and apparatus has the potential to bring insight about the complicated phenomena involved in the nature of fluid flows.

The conventional medical immunoassays (ELISA/CLIA/FPIA) are not only costly (>10,000 USD), large in size (>10,000 cm3), but also require a vast number of sampling (25 £gL/well ¡Ñ 12 well) and long detection time (1~2.5 hr). To develop a biomedical microsensor for the application of portable detecting microsystem, this thesis proposes a flexural plate wave (FPW) microsensor with a novel reflection grating electrode (RGE) microstructure. Comparing to the conventional acoustic microsensors, the FPW based device has higher mass sensitivity, lower operation frequency but higher noise level. To overcome this disadvantages, this study added the RGE microstructure into the design of FPW sensor and investigated its influences on the reduction of insertion loss and noise level. By using the surface and bulk micromachining technologies, this thesis designed and fabricated FPW-based mass-sensing device with a small volume of 0.189 cm3 and a novel RGE microstructure. The main processing steps adopted in this research include six photolithoghaphies and nine thin-film depositions. In this work, a high figure-of-merit C-axial orientation ZnO piezoelectric thin-film was deposited by a commercial magnetic radio-frequency (RF) sputter system. On the other hand, the gold/chrome interdigital transducer (IDT) and RGE aluminum electrode were deposited utilizing a commercial E-beam evaporator system. For the optimization of design specifications of the FPW devices, the space of input and output IDTs, pair number of IDT, length of delay line gap and with/without RGE design were varied and investigated. Under the optimized IDT specification, the FPW microstructure presents lower central frequency (2¡ã4 MHz), insertion loss (-11 dB) and noise level (<-30 dB) than that of the FPW based microsensor without RGE microstructure. In addition, as the sampling volume of the testing DI water is equal to 1 £gL, a high mass sensitivity (-48.3 cm2/g) and short responding time (5 min) of the FPW microsensor with RGE design can be achieved in this work. The excellent characteristics mentioned above demonstrated the implemented FPW microsensor is very suitable for the applications of portable biomedical detecting microsystems.

In vitro and in vivo models were proposed to evaluate the effects of ischemic mitral regurgitation and surgical repair on the function and mechanics of the heart’s mitral valve. In specific aim 1, a novel transducer was developed to measure the radially directed forces that may act on devices implanted to the mitral annulus. In an ovine model, radial forces were found to statistically increase with left ventricular pressure and were reduced in the setting of ischemic mitral regurgitation. In specific aim 2, the suture forces required to constrain true-sized and undersized annuloplasty rings to the mitral annulus of ovine animals was evaluated. Suture forces were observed to be larger on the anterior aspect of the rings and were elevated with annular undersizing. In specific aim 3, an in vitro simulator’s ability to mimic healthy and ischemic mitral regurgitation ovine mitral valve function was evaluated. After understanding the accuracy of the model, the in vitro ischemic mitral regurgitation model was used to evaluate the progressive effects of annuloplasty on strut and intermediary chordal tethering. The generated data and knowledge will contribute to the development of more durable devices and techniques to assess the significant clinical burden known as ischemic mitral regurgitation.

Surface acoustic wave sensors have been a focus of active research for many years. Its ability to respond for surface perturbation is a basic principle for its sensing capability. Sensitivity to surface perturbation changes with every inter-digital transducer (IDT) design parameters, substrate selection, metallization choice and technique, delay line length and working environment. In this thesis, surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors are designed and characterized to improve sensitivity and reduce loss. To quantify the improvements with a specific design configuration, the sensors are employed to measure temperature. Four SAW sensors design configurations, namely bi-directional, split electrode, single phase unidirectional transducer (SPUDT) and metal grating on delay line (shear transvers wave sensors) are designed and then fabricated in Nanotechnology Research and Education Center (NREC) facility using traditional MEMS fabrication processes Additionally, sensors are then coated with guiding layer SU8-2035 of 40 m using spin coating and SiO2 of 6 m using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process. Sensors are later diced and tested for every 5oC increment using network analyzer for temperature ranging from 30oC–0.5oC to 80oC–0.5oC. Data acquired from network analyzer is analyzed using plot of logarithmic magnitude, phase and frequency shift. Furthermore, to investigate the effect of metallization technique on the sensor performance, sensors are also fabricated on substrates that were metallized at a commercial MEMS foundry. All in-house and outside sputtered sensor configurations are compared to investigate quality of sputtered metal on wafer. One with better quality sputtered metal is chosen for further study. Later sensors coated with SU8 and SiO2 as guiding layer are compared to investigate effect of each waveguide on sensors and determine which waveguide offers better performance. The results showed that company sputtered sensors have higher sensitivity compared to in-house sputtered wafers. Furthermore after comparing SU8 and SiO2 coated sensors in the same instrumental and environmental condition, it was observed that SU8 coated di-directional and single phase unidirectional transducer (SPUDT) sensors showed best response.

The instrumentation and methodology of this study provided quantitative data for a group of six advanced slalom skiers. Rope load, skier velocity, ski roll, ski acceleration and ski deceleration were calculated during the deep water start and cutting portion of a slalom run. Four different ski designs were tested in order to determine if the test subjects were able to achieve a different level of performance on each ski. Through a statistical analysis there was enough evidence to suggest that a different performance was achieved between the skis, for rope load and peak roll. There was also enough evidence to suggest that the skiers were achieving different overall levels of performance. The analysis procedure of this study achieved the goal of proving that it could be used to improve coaching capabilities and product design in the water ski industry.

Focused ultrasound combined with intravenously injected microbubbles is a promising non-invasive therapy capable of temporarily disrupting the blood-brain barrier for targeted drug delivery. Established in vivo experiments on rodent models combine focused ultrasound treatment with two-photon microscopy imaging to improve understanding of microvasculature response. A phased array, an advanced ultrasound therapy device, was successfully developed to improve pressure transmission in these experiments. An investigation of transducer sensitivity to setup equipment suggested modifications to setup procedures, for example recording objective position, may improve in situ pressure estimates. A ring array composed of 50 lateral mode elements, geometry determined by pressure field simulations, was successfully fabricated. Fibre optic hydrophone pressure field measurements confirmed the device had an appropriate focal size (0.7mm diameter x 4mm axial length) and reached therapeutic pressure levels (>0.5MPa). Ex vivo transcranial measurements demonstrated moderate focal correction and off-axis steering capabilities that may improve experimental throughput and target alignment.

Focused ultrasound combined with intravenously injected microbubbles is a promising non-invasive therapy capable of temporarily disrupting the blood-brain barrier for targeted drug delivery. Established in vivo experiments on rodent models combine focused ultrasound treatment with two-photon microscopy imaging to improve understanding of microvasculature response. A phased array, an advanced ultrasound therapy device, was successfully developed to improve pressure transmission in these experiments. An investigation of transducer sensitivity to setup equipment suggested modifications to setup procedures, for example recording objective position, may improve in situ pressure estimates. A ring array composed of 50 lateral mode elements, geometry determined by pressure field simulations, was successfully fabricated. Fibre optic hydrophone pressure field measurements confirmed the device had an appropriate focal size (0.7mm diameter x 4mm axial length) and reached therapeutic pressure levels (>0.5MPa). Ex vivo transcranial measurements demonstrated moderate focal correction and off-axis steering capabilities that may improve experimental throughput and target alignment.

Nowadays with the world oil price soaring, the energy issue is becoming a significant topic and the possibility of harvesting ambient energy receiving much attention. In this dissertation, the main topic surrounds improving the piezoelectric energy harvesting device in several aspects and the final objective is to integrate it with low power consumption device, for example a wireless sensor network (WSN) node to extend the battery lifetime and further supply the energy to device directly. Based on the high mechanical quality factor of the structure, the output power of the piezoelectric energy harvesting device will decrease rapidly when the exciting frequency is out of the resonant frequency range. The tunable resonant frequency technique is proposed to broaden the resonant frequency range and increase the output power effectively. Then this technique is successfully combined with a WSN module to transmit the RF signal. To broaden resonant frequency another method is proposed, based on a bistable vibrating cantilever beam and a switching-type interface circuit (SSHI). It's a new and interesting concept to combine these two techniques. The magnets are used to make mechanical behavior non-linear and increase the output power at non-resonance. The SSHI technique through zero-velocity detection can work well when system is driven in non-linear system. The experimental and simulation results through work-cycles discussion show good performance of combining these two techniques. In the interface circuit design, synchronized switching harvesting on an inductor (SSHI) have been verified a successful technique to increase output power in low-coupling system. In order to make use of the SSHI technique in the real application, the velocity control self-powered SSHI (V-SSHI) system is proposed. Unlike the conventional peak detector technique, the zero-velocity detection is used to make the switching time more accurate. The energy flow is separated into three paths to construct the V-SSHI and the experimental results show good performance. When the system is not low-coupled, the SSHI technique will damp vibration.This technique is called SSDI (synchronized switching damping on an inductor). Based on the self-powered technique and zero-velocity detection used in the V-SSHI, these techniques are further applied in structural damping to construct a self-powered SSDI (SP-SSDI). The major advantage is that it is only necessary to sacrifice a small amount of damping performance to make the system fully self-powered. The theoretical analysis and experiment results of time domain comparison and frequency response testing show the limit and performance of the SP-SSDI technique. The SP-SSDI system is a like a feedback loop system and when the displacement is over the limit the SP-SSDI will effectively damp the vibration.