We are conducting a number of different projects involving sensors. The first exmple is a plastic, laser-cut shock sensor based on a bistable mechanism (Figure 1) that can be integrated with RFID tag. This project is done in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Schultz of BYU's ECEn Dept. and Dr. Brian Jensen of BYU's ME Dept.


Figure 1 - Pictures of a fabricated shock sensor in (a) the first stable position and (b) the second stable position with the white section only visible in the first stable position.

Figure 2 shows a ceramic plate with metal electrodes made through laser cutting and microfabrication. This is the heart of a new type of very compact mass spectrometer with operation based on ion trapping. This project is done in collaboration with Dr. Daniel Austin of BYU's Chemistry Dept.


Figure 2 - Top-view photograph of a trapping plate fabricated from an alumina substrate. The picture was taken before the evaporation of germanium over the gold ring electrodes.


Figure 3 - SII linescan of three SU8 test squares with results reported as ph or (Rsample)(Aeff). The height of the squares as measured using a profilometer is indicated.

Additional work is also being done on our Scanning Impedance Imaging (SII) technique. We developed methods for quantifying impedance for thin samples as shown in Figures 3 and 4. We also developed mathematical models for this measurement method that allow us to improve the resolution of measured images, an example of which is shown in Figure 5. This project is done in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Schultz of BYU's ECE Dept.


Figure 4 - 2-D SII scan of SU8 squares. The black and white gradient scale is in terms of ?h, with units of ?-cm2, with the shortest square on the left side of the figure.


Figure 20 - (a), (c), breast cancer cell groups, pixel size 10?m X 10?m, image size 1.0mm X 1.0mm; (b), (d) , a piece of a butterfly wing, pixel size 25.4?m X 25.4?m, image size 2.54mm X 2.54mm. (a),(b) are the measured current map (Amp.); (c), (d) are the reconstructed images (S/m)

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