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MEAM Seminar: “Engineering Microdevices Using Atomic Layer Deposition and Electrowetting”
September 17, 2019 at 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
This talk will cover 1) devices created one atomic layer at a time and 2) electrowetting optical elements. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) and Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) are self-limiting processes that enable accurate atomic-scale thickness control either through deposition or etching of various materials. We are developing novel manufacturing processes that study how ALD materials can be used to create nano-scale transducers. Example applications include thin film coatings for MEMS, materials with tunable properties, nano-scale sensors and actuators. We are also developing liquid optical components based on the electrowetting effect, where the contact angle of a liquid on a dielectric substrate changes due to applied voltage. Optical lenses and prisms can be fabricated as individual components or as arrays and are electrically addressed by transparent electrodes. By applying a voltage between the liquid and the substrate, the droplet changes curvature and the liquid interface acts as a variable focus lens or using multiple drive electrodes as a prism. This phenomenon can be used for wavefront compensation in adaptive optics, communications, beam steering, optical switching and microscopy.
Victor M. Bright
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
Victor M. Bright received his BSEE degree from the University of Colorado – Denver in 1986, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1989 and 1992, respectively. Dr. Bright is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Colorado Boulder. From 2005 through 2007, he was the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering, and from 2009-2013 was the Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering. Currently, he is a Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to joining the University of Colorado, he was a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio (1992-1997). During 2004 he was a Visiting Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich), Switzerland. Prof. Bright’s research activities include nano- and micro-electro-mechanical systems (N/MEMS), silicon micromachining, microsensors/microactuators, optical, magnetic and RF microsystems, atomic-layer deposited materials, N/MEMS reliability, and N/MEMS packaging. Dr. Bright was the General Co-Chair of the IEEE MEMS 2005 International Conference, Miami, FL. He also served on the Technical Program Committees for the Transducers’03, Transducers’07, Transducers’13, IEEE/LEOS Optical MEMS 2003-2005, and Hilton Head 2008 Solid-State Sensors and Actuators Workshop. He has taught a Short Course on MEMS Packaging at Transducers’03 and Transducers’05. Prof. Bright was the General Technical Chair for the Transducers 2015 International Conference, Anchorage, AK. From 2005-2018 he was an Editor for the Micromechanics Section of the Journal of Sensors and Actuators A-Physical, Elsevier. Prof. Bright is a Fellow of ASME and a Fellow of IEEE. He has over 300 publications in the field of sensors and microsystems and has advised over 50 PhD and MS graduate students during his career.