CAREER: Energy Scavenging for MEMS and Engineering Education Development

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) have grown from scientific speculation to commercial success. Still, a number of technical challenges remain which cannot be addressed by the private sector. One of these challenges is the integration of the power supply into the MEMS device. It is a further challenge to build the power source, using only the processing technology that was used to build the micromechanical elements and the electronic elements of the device. We address the technical issue of obtaining energy from the environment to power MEMS devices, rather than powering the device through external batteries or power supplies. Examples from horology provide inspiration for scavenging both mechanical motion and thermal energy. While a number of energy scavenging schemes based on capturing vibration have been proposed, we intend to take advantage of the high potential energy densities of thermal systems. We will develop scaling and design methods for thermally scavenged systems, and demonstrate a mechanical micromachine actuated by changes in ambient temperature. This technology may be used in the future development of autonomous microrobots or microsatellites. A problem facing higher education and high technology industry is the dearth of students and graduates. This is an especially acute problem for interdisciplinary fields such as MEMS. Upper-division students require cross-disciplinary education to become skilled contributors to MEMS research, and there are not enough upper-division students. We therefore must attract more students into the technical fields. The NSF CAREER program leverages on existing curriculum development efforts by turning curriculum development into science/engineering outreach. Project-based courses will have their final presentations in secondary schools, where high school students will have the opportunity to evaluate engineering projects. Similarly, we will develop sections of project-based engineering courses targeted for science teachers, with the objective of integrating teachers into engineering development teams. New courses will be modularized, so that topics can be offered as short courses or tutorials, and published with distance education technology. NSF funding will enable students to actually fabricate and test the designs their teams have designed and simulated through the NNUN or other multi-user foundries. The research results, and the research program needs, are intertwined with the educational development. Research findings and educational assessments will be used to revise and refine curriculum development and teaching methods. Similarly, project ideas for the courses will be drawn from the research problems. All of these efforts are leveraged through existing programs designed for outreach to disadvantaged and underrepresented groups in the sciences at the University of New Mexico and in New Mexico.