Integrated MEMS Technologies

MRS Bulletin ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea E. Franke ◽  
Tsu-Jae King ◽  
Roger T. Howe

While microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology has made a substantial impact over the past decade at the device or component level, it has yet to realize the “S” in its acronym, as complex microsystems consisting of sensors and actuators integrated with sense, control, and signal-processing electronics are still beyond the current state of the art. There are several incentives to co-fabricate MEMS devices and electronics on a single silicon chip, which apply to applications such as inertial sensors.

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1688) ◽  
pp. 20150106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret M. McCarthy

Studies of sex differences in the brain range from reductionistic cell and molecular analyses in animal models to functional imaging in awake human subjects, with many other levels in between. Interpretations and conclusions about the importance of particular differences often vary with differing levels of analyses and can lead to discord and dissent. In the past two decades, the range of neurobiological, psychological and psychiatric endpoints found to differ between males and females has expanded beyond reproduction into every aspect of the healthy and diseased brain, and thereby demands our attention. A greater understanding of all aspects of neural functioning will only be achieved by incorporating sex as a biological variable. The goal of this review is to highlight the current state of the art of the discipline of sex differences research with an emphasis on the brain and to contextualize the articles appearing in the accompanying special issue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai-Cheng Yan ◽  
Axel Steinbrueck ◽  
Adam C. Sedgwick ◽  
Tony D. James

Over the past 30 years fluorescent chemosensors have evolved to incorporate many optical-based modalities and strategies. In this perspective we seek to highlight the current state of the art as well as provide our viewpoint on the most significant future challenges remaining in the area. To underscore current trends in the field and to facilitate understanding of the area, we provide the reader with appropriate contemporary examples. We then conclude with our thoughts on the most probable directions that chemosensor development will take in the not-too-distant future.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijay K. Varadan

Abstract The microelectronics industry has seen explosive growth during the last thirty years. Extremely large markets for logic and memory devices have driven the development of new materials, and technologies for the fabrication of even more complex devices with features sizes now down at the sub micron level. Recent interest has arisen in employing these materials, tools and technologies for the fabrication of miniature sensors and actuators and their integration with electronic circuits to produce smart devices and MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS). This effort offers the promise of: 1. Increasing the performance and manufacturability of both sensors and actuators by exploiting new batch fabrication processes developed for the IC and microelectronics industry. Examples include micro stereo lithographic and micro molding techniques. 2. Developing novel classes of materials and mechanical structures not possible previously, such as diamond like carbon, silicon carbide and carbon nanotubes, micro-turbines and micro-engines. 3. Development of technologies for the system level and wafer level integration of micro components at the nanometer precision, such as self-assembly techniques and robotic manipulation. 4. Development of control and communication systems for MEMS devices, such as optical and RF wireless, and power delivery systems.


Author(s):  
Hadi Mirzajani ◽  
Habib Badri Ghavifekr ◽  
Esmaeil Najafi Aghdam

In recent years, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) technology has seen a rapid rate of evolution because of its great potential for advancing new products in a broad range of applications. The RF and microwave devices and components fabricated by this technology offer unsurpassed performance such as near-zero power consumption, high linearity, and cost effectiveness by batch fabrication in respect to their conventional counterparts. This chapter aims to give an in-depth overview of the most recently published methods of designing MEMS-based smart antennas. Before embarking into the different techniques of beam steering, the concept of smart antennas is introduced. Then, some fundamental concepts of MEMS technology such as micromachining technologies (bulk and surface micromachining) are briefly discussed. After that, a number of RF MEMS devices such as switches and phase shifters that have applications in beam steering antennas are introduced and their operating principals are completely explained. Finally, various configurations of MEMS-enabled beam steering antennas are discussed in detail.


2019 ◽  
Vol 217 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony S. David

Academic interest in the concept of insight in psychosis has increased markedly over the past 30 years, prompting this selective appraisal of the current state of the art. Considerable progress has been made in terms of measurement and confirming a number of clinical associations. More recently, the relationship between insight and involuntary treatment has been scrutinised more closely alongside the link between decision-making capacity and insight. Advances in the clinical and cognitive neurosciences have influenced conceptual development, particularly the field of ‘metacognition’. New therapies, including those that are psychologically and neurophysiologically based, are being tested as ways to enhance insight.


Geophysics ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles C. Bates

A decade ago, it would have been the rare geophysicist indeed who would have predicted that his specialty was destined to become a major topic of discussion between such world political leaders as Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, Prime Minister Macmillan of Great Britain, and Chairman Khrushchev of the USSR. Yet this has come to pass during the past six years, for in 1958 there started the continuing round of international negotiations directed towards the creation of an effective underground test-ban treaty. During the conduct of these negotiations, it has been repeatedly necessary to assess the current state-of-the-art in seismology and its sister geophysical sciences, for the only detectable signals known to propagate for several hundreds to thousands of miles from underground nuclear tests are seismic in nature. With the United States policy being only to seek an underground-test-ban agreement incorporating strong safeguards against acts of bad faith, it is important that the political safe-guards be backed up by those of a geophysical nature.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 403-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor A. Lifton ◽  
Gregory Lifton ◽  
Steve Simon

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the options for additive rapid prototyping methods in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Additive rapid prototyping technologies, such as stereolithography (SLA), fused deposition modeling (FDM) and selective laser sintering (SLS), all commonly known as three-dimensional (3D) printing methods, are reviewed and compared with the resolution requirements of the traditional MEMS fabrication methods. Design/methodology/approach – In the 3D print approach, the entire assembly, parts and prototypes are built using various plastic and metal materials directly from the software file input, completely bypassing any additional processing steps. The review highlights their potential place in the overall process flow to reduce the complexity of traditional microfabrication and long processing cycles needed to test multiple prototypes before the final design is set. Findings – Additive manufacturing (AM) is a promising manufacturing technique in micro-device technology. Practical implications – In the current state of 3D printing, microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip devices for fluid handling and manipulation appear to be the most compatible with the 3D print methods, given their fairly coarse minimum feature size of 50-500 μm. Future directions in the 3D materials and method development are identified, such as adhesion and material compatibility studies of the 3D print materials, wafer-level printing and conductive materials development. One of the most important goals should be the drive toward finer resolution and layer thickness (1-10 μm) to stimulate the use of the 3D printing in a wider array of MEMS devices. Originality/value – The review combines two discrete disciplines, microfabrication and AM, and shows how microfabrication and micro-device commercialization may benefit from employing methods developed by the AM community.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Knight

This paper takes stock of the current state-of-the-art in multimodal corpus linguistics, and proposes some projections of future developments in this field. It provides a critical overview of key multimodal corpora that have been constructed over the past decade and presents a wish-list of future technological and methodological advancements that may help to increase the availability, utility and functionality of such corpora for linguistic research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 65-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Gatt ◽  
Emiel Krahmer

This paper surveys the current state of the art in Natural Language Generation (NLG), defined as the task of generating text or speech from non-linguistic input. A survey of NLG is timely in view of the changes that the field has undergone over the past two decades, especially in relation to new (usually data-driven) methods, as well as new applications of NLG technology. This survey therefore aims to (a) give an up-to-date synthesis of research on the core tasks in NLG and the architectures adopted in which such tasks are organised; (b) highlight a number of recent research topics that have arisen partly as a result of growing synergies between NLG and other areas of artificial intelligence; (c) draw attention to the challenges in NLG evaluation, relating them to similar challenges faced in other areas of NLP, with an emphasis on different evaluation methods and the relationships between them.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Sloan ◽  
Julio Hernandez-Castro

Steganography is the art and science of concealing information in such a way that only the sender and intended recipient of a message should be aware of its presence. Digital steganography has been used in the past on a variety of media including executable files, audio, text, games and, notably, images. Additionally, there is increasing research interest towards the use of video as a media for steganography, due to its pervasive nature and diverse embedding capabilities. In this work, we examine the embedding algorithms and other security characteristics of several video steganography tools. We show how all feature basic and severe security weaknesses. This is potentially a very serious threat to the security, privacy and anonymity of their users. It is important to highlight that most steganography users have perfectly legal and ethical reasons to employ it. Some common scenarios would include citizens in oppressive regimes whose freedom of speech is compromised, people trying to avoid massive surveillance or censorship, political activists, whistle blowers, journalists, etc. As a result of our findings, we strongly recommend to cease any use of these tools, and to remove any contents that may have been hidden, and any carriers stored, exchanged and/or uploaded online. For many of these tools, carrier files will be trivial to detect, potentially compromising any hidden data and the parties involved in the communication. We finish this work by presenting our steganalytic results, that highlight a very poor current state of the art in practical video steganography tools. There is unfortunately a complete lack of secure and publicly available tools, and even commercial tools offer very poor security. We therefore encourage the steganography community to work towards the development of more secure and accessible video steganography tools, and make them available for the general public. The results presented in this work can also be seen as a useful resource for forensic examiners to determine the existence of any video steganography materials over the course of a computer forensic investigation.


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