{"403871":{"#nid":"403871","#data":{"type":"news","title":"MEMS pack big punch in tiny package","body":[{"value":"\u003Ch3\u003EMicro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, may not be on your mind, but there could be some in your pocket.\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022intro-text\u0022\u003EYour smartphone likely uses a dozen or so tiny \u2014 yet powerful \u2014\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca class=\u0022tooltip\u0022 title=\u0022 handheld devices, environmental sensors, medical diagnostic systems, and strain sensors.\u0022 href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rh.gatech.edu\/features\/unseen-machines#\u0022\u003EMEMS\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;sensors to support its sophisticated functions. And that late-model car undoubtedly carries scores of devices based on MEMS and other sensing technologies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETypically sized at the micron scale \u2014 millionths of a meter \u2014 MEMS devices use minuscule moving parts to perform a broad range of sensing tasks. Small as they are, they can detect sound, motion, position, force, pressure, chemicals, bacteria, and numerous other things worth knowing about. Note that these miniaturized sensors don\u2019t always have moving parts, and a broader term \u2014 microsystems \u2014 is sometimes used rather than MEMS.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt Georgia Tech, more than 20 research teams focus on MEMS-related research and development. Supporting them is the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ien.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EInstitute for Electronics and Nanotechnology\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(IEN), one of Georgia Tech\u2019s nine Interdisciplinary Research Institutes. IEN\u2019s extensive shared-user facilities, including advanced labs and cleanrooms, are used by as many as 200 Georgia Tech faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers who work on MEMS and other microsystems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMore and more, our electronic systems must be aware of and even interact with their environment, and MEMS-based devices do that very well. They are the ear that detects sound and movement, the nose and tongue that detect toxic chemicals or smoke,\u201d said Oliver Brand, a professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and executive director of IEN. \u201cMEMS is like a sandbox of technologies and processes that lets us miniaturize sensors, and even put several sensing technologies onto a single chip, at low cost. It can enable many innovative applications, and it can also make conventional devices \u2014 like smoke or movement detectors \u2014 smaller, smarter, and more effective.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECreating innovative sensors is highly interdisciplinary, Brand noted, requiring the joint efforts of electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, chemists, and biochemists \u2014 who are, in turn, supported by materials, packaging, and circuit-design experts. In addition, MEMS development is often expensive, demanding advanced facilities with device fabrication and characterization tools.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIEN enables Georgia Tech researchers to address these challenges, Brand said. Its cleanrooms and associated labs, open to Georgia Tech and non-Georgia Tech researchers, make state-of-the-art fabrication and characterization equipment widely available. As a result, most MEMS prototypes under development at Georgia Tech can be built right on campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo read the complete story, visit Horizons magazine at\u0026nbsp;http:\/\/www.rh.gatech.edu\/features\/unseen-machines.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETypically sized at the micron scale \u2014 millionths of a meter \u2014 MEMS devices use minuscule moving parts to perform a broad range of sensing tasks. Small as they are, they can detect sound, motion, position, force, pressure, chemicals, bacteria, and numerous other things worth knowing about.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"More than 20 teams studying micro-electromechanical systems"}],"uid":"28159","created_gmt":"2015-05-12 09:06:17","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:17","author":"Kelly Smith","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-05-12T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-05-12T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"217141","name":"Georgia Tech Materials Institute"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"149","name":"Nanotechnology and Nanoscience"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1692","name":"materials"},{"id":"125991","name":"memes"},{"id":"125981","name":"micro"},{"id":"107","name":"Nanotechnology"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39451","name":"Electronics and Nanotechnology"},{"id":"39471","name":"Materials"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}