The lifetime of micro electro–thermo–mechanical actuators with complex electro–thermo–mechanical coupling mechanisms can be decreased significantly due to unexpected failure events. Even more serious is the fact that various failures are tightly coupled due to micro-size and multi-physics effects. Interrelation between performance and potential failures should be established to predict reliabil...

The electro-mechanical sensing properties of freestanding monolayered membranes of dodecanethiol coated 7 nm gold nanoparticles (NPs) are investigated using AFM force spectroscopy and conductive AFM simultaneously. The electrical resistance of the NP membranes increases sensitively with the point-load force applied in the center of the membranes using an AFM tip. Numerical simulations of electr...

this paper addresses the problem of the fractional sliding mode control (fsmc) for a mems optical switch. the proposed scheme utilizes a fractional sliding surface to describe dynamic behavior of the system in the sliding mode stage. after a comparison with the classical integer-order counterpart, it is seen that the control system with the proposed sliding surface displays better transient per...

Application of Inkjet-Printing Technology to Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems

A remaining useful life prediction algorithm and degradation model for electrolytic capacitors is presented. Electrolytic capacitors are used in several applications ranging from power supplies on critical avionics equipment to power drivers for electro-mechanical actuators. These devices are known for their low reliability and given their criticality in electronics subsystems they are a good c...

Electrolytic capacitors are used in several applications ranging from power supplies on safety critical avionics equipment to power drivers for electro-mechanical actuators. This makes them good candidates for prognostics and health management research. Prognostics provides a way to assess remaining useful life of components or systems based on their current state of health and their anticipate...

Microchannels are currently being used in many areas and have high potential for applications in many other areas. The application areas include Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), microfuidics such as microchannel heat sinks for cooling micro-chips and laser diode arrays, LabOn-Chip devices for chemical and bio-medical analyses, biotechnology, telecommunications, metrology, computer techn...

Electrolytic capacitors are used in several applications ranging from power supplies for safety critical avionics equipment to power drivers for electro-mechanical actuators. Past experiences show that capacitors tend to degrade and fail faster when subjected to high electrical or thermal stress conditions during operations. This makes them good candidates for prognostics and health management....

The electric capacitance of an amorphous TiO2-x surface increases proportionally to the negative sixth power of the convex diameter d. This occurs because of the van der Waals attraction on the amorphous surface of up to 7 mF/cm2, accompanied by extreme enhanced electron trapping resulting from both the quantum-size effect and an offset effect from positive charges at oxygen-vacancy sites. Here...