The Distinguished Lecture on “Micro- and Nanosystems at ESAT, KU Leuven” will take place as follows:
Date: 06 September 2023 (Wednesday)
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Venue: Research Building N21, 3/F, Room 3004
The speaker is:
Prof. Michael Kraft, full Professor of Micro- and Nanosystems, University of Leuven
The Lecture is:
Micro- and Nanosystems at ESAT, KU Leuven
Abstract:
Micro- and Nanosystems (MNS) are undoubtedly an enabling key technology for the 21st century, as they can contribute to solutions for practically all grand societal challenges humanity is facing, such as sustainable growth, mobility, and environmental problems, in particular climate change, health and renewable energy. This fascinating and multidisciplinary research field will certainly strongly grow over the next years, and already represents an important economic factor.
The presentation aims to introduce activities at the Department of Electrical Engineering at KU Leuven, Belgium, revolving around Micro- and Nanosystems. It will first provide a general overview of the facilities at KU Leuven and the wide range of research activities in this field. Then, specific projects will be discussed in more detail:
- MEMS evolutionary design methods: Conventional MEMS systems typically rely on very simple geometrical elements such as straight beams and rectangular shapes. Also, the micro-mechanical structure is usually designed separately from the electronic interface and control system. We developed a novel, semi-automated design framework that allows to introduce freeform geometries as well as co-design a MEMS device across several physical domains. Several examples will be given, including high-performance inertial sensors, microgrippers as well as a thermo-electro-mechanical coupled resonator.
- Piezoelectric ultrasound transducers (PMUT), microphones and microspeakers: ongoing projects and recent progress on these devices will be presented, including simulation results and preliminary measurements on first prototype devices.
- Coupled resonators for mass sensing applications: coupled resonators have attracted a lot of attention as they can provide considerably enhanced sensitivity for a perturbation such as a mass change. Two examples will be discussed: a self-oscillating piezoresistive / thermal resonator and a bulk-acoustic resonator.
- Micromachined probes for neuro recording and stimulation: probing the brain requires flexible neuroelectrodes with dense electrode arrays. Our efforts towards flexible probes will be briefly presented.
- Multi-parameter sensing chip for bioreactor condition monitoring: a chip that can concurrently sense Ph, dissolved oxygen, lactate & glucose concentration, temperature and cell density will be shown.
Finally, the newly founded Leuven Institute for Micro- and Nano Integration (LIMNI) will be briefly introduced. The presentation will end with a short summary and conclusions.
Biography:
Michael Kraft is a full Professor of Micro- and Nanosystems at the University of Leuven, Department of Electrical Engineering in Belgium since 2017. He heads the Research Division Micro- and Nanosystems and is acting director of the Leuven Institute for Micro and Nanoscale Integration (LIMNI). He also is a guest professor at IMEC. His research group currently comprises 22 PhD students, 4 postdocs and 2 technicians.
Before joining KU Leuven, he was a professor at the University of Liege (2015-17) where he was responsible for the Microsys cleanroom. From 2012-2014, he was at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems in Duisburg, Germany, where he was Head of the Department of Micro- and Nanosystems focusing on fully integrated microsensors and biohybrid systems. He concurrently held the W3 Professorial Chair of Integrated Micro- and Nanosystems at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
From 1999 to 2012, he was a faculty member and Professor of Micro-System-Technology at the University of Southampton, UK. He graduated with a Dipl.-Ing. (Univ.) in electrical and electronics engineering at the Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in 1993. In 1997, he was awarded a PhD from Coventry University, UK on the development of a MEMS accelerometer. He then spent two years at the Berkeley Sensors and Actuator Centre at the University of California working on integrated MEMS gyroscopes. He has more than 20 years of experience in micro- and nano-fabrication techniques, microsensors and actuators and their interface circuits. He has a broad interest in MEMS and nanotechnology ranging from process development to system integration of MEMS and nano-devices. He has published over 300 peer reviewed journal and conference publications as an author or co-author. He also contributed to four textbooks on MEMS as author and editor. He has served on several steering and technical committees of international conferences such as Transducers, ISSCC, IEEE Sensors, Eurosensors, MNE and MME, as well as being an associate editor for the IEEE Sensors Letter, IEEE JMEMS, MDPI Sensors, and AMA Journal of Sensors and Sensors Systems.
For more details, kindly find the event poster, abstract and bio.
