Densely arrayed skeletal myotubes are activated individually and as a group using precise optical stimulation with high spatiotemporal resolution. Skeletal muscle myoblasts are genetically encoded to express a light-activated cation channel, Channelrhodopsin-2, which allows for spatiotemporal coordination of a multitude of skeletal myotubes that contract in response to pulsed blue light. Furthe...

Abstract The Casimir force, a quantum mechanical effect, has been observed in several microelectromechanical system (MEMS) platforms. Due to its extreme sensitivity the separation of two objects, force proposed as an excellent avenue for metrology. Practical application, however, is challenging due attractive forces leading stiction and device failure, called pull-in. In this work, we design si...

Reducing access times to secondary I/O devices has long been the focus of many systems researchers. With traditional disk drives, access time is the composition of seek time and rotational latency, and so many techniques to order I/O requests or place data to minimize these factors have been developed. MEMS-based storage devices are seen by many as a replacement or an augmentation for modern di...

A novel three-dimensional biodegradable micro-device using microelectromechanical systems technology was developed for implantable controlled drug delivery. In order to evaluate the effect of monomer composition and molecular weight of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) on the drug release, three 5-Fluorouracil loaded micro-devices, made of 50/50, 27 kDa; 50/50, 40 kDa and 75/25 27 kDa PLGA, ...

A unique technique to perform quantitative in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) fatigue testing on ultrathin films and nanomaterials is demonstrated. The technique relies on a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device to actuate a nanospecimen and measure its mechanical response. Compared to previously demonstrated MEMS-based in situ TEM techniques, the technique takes advantage of ...

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are employed in safety-critical fields such as automotive, aerospace and medical applications. In all these fields, reliability-related system characterization receives growing attention. This includes studies on the possible deterioration of the device during manufacturing, i.e. system test in the course of fabrication, and in the application. This paper r...

A self-sensing approach is used to accurately control the large displacements observed in VO2-based microelectromechanical systems actuators. The device is operated electrothermally using integrated resistive heaters. The coupling of the abrupt electrical and mechanical changes in VO2 films across its phase transition allow for the estimation of the device’s deflection by monitoring the film’s ...

We report the design, fabrication and characterization of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) flow control device for gas chromatography (GC) with the capability of sustaining high-temperature environments. We further demonstrate the use of this new device in a novel MEMS chopper-modulated gas chromatography-electroantennography (MEMS-GC-EAG) system to identify specific volatile organic com...

We report a tunable nanophotonic device concept based on flexible photonic crystal, which is comprised of a periodic array of high-index dielectric material and a low-index flexible polymer. Tunability is achieved by applying mechanical force with nano-/microelectromechanical system actuators. The mechanical stress induces changes in the periodicity of the photonic crystal and consequently modi...