Fabrication and testing of coplanar single-chamber micro solid oxide fuel cells with geometrically complex electrodes

Coplanar single-chamber micro solid oxide fuel cells (SC-μSOFCs) with curvilinear microelectrode configurations of arbitrarily complex two-dimensional geometry were fabricated by a direct-write microfabrication technique using conventional fuel cell materials. The electrochemical performance of two SC-μSOFCs with different electrode shapes, but comparable electrode and inter-electrode dimensions, was characterized in a methane–air mixture at 700 °C. Both cells exhibited stable open circuit voltage and peak power density of 0.9 V and 2.3 mW cm⁻², respectively, indicating that electrode shape did not have a significant influence on the performance of these fuel cells.     

Mechanical spectroscopy of nanocrystalline aluminum films: effects of frequency and grain size on internal friction

Energy dissipation by internal friction is a property of fundamental interest for probing the effects of scale on mechanical behavior in nanocrystalline metallic films and for guiding the use of these materials in the design of high-Q micro/nanomechanical resonators. This paper describes an experimental study to measure the effects of frequency, annealing and grain size on internal friction at room temperature in sputter-deposited nanocrystalline aluminum films with thicknesses ranging from 60 to 120 nm. Internal friction was measured using a single-crystal silicon microcantilever platform that calibrates dissipation against the fundamental limits of thermoelastic damping. Internal friction was a weak function of frequency, reducing only by a factor of two over three decades of frequency (70 Hz to 44 kHz). Annealing led to significant grain growth and the average grain size of 100 nm thick films increased from 90 to 390 nm after annealing for 1 h at 450?(°)C. This increase in grain size was accompanied by a decrease in internal friction from 0.05 to 0.02. Taken together, these results suggest that grain-boundary sliding, characterized by a spectrum of relaxation times, contributes to internal friction in these films.     

Thermoelastic damping in fine-grained polysilicon flexural beam resonators

The design and fabrication of polysilicon flexural beam resonators with very high mechanical quality factors (Q) is essential for many MEMS applications. Based on an extension of the well-established theory of thermoelastic damping in homogeneous beams, we present closed-form expressions to estimate an upper bound on the attainable quality factors of polycrystalline beam resonators with thickness (h) much larger than the average grain size (d). Associated with each of these length scales is an independent damping mechanism; we refer to them as Zener and intracrystalline thermoelastic damping, respectively. For representative polysilicon beam resonators (h = 2 /spl mu/m; d = 0.1 /spl mu/m) at 300 K, the predicted critical frequencies for these two mechanisms are /spl sim/7 MHz and /spl sim/14 GHz, respectively. The model is consistent with data from the literature in the sense that the measured values approach, but do not exceed, the calculated thermoelastic limit. From the viewpoint of the maximum attainable Q, our model suggests that single-crystal silicon, rather than fine-grained polysilicon, is the material of choice for the fabrication of flexural beam resonators for applications in the gigahertz frequency range.     

Fluidic packaging of microengine and microrocket devices for high-pressure and high-temperature operation

The fluidic packaging of Power MEMS devices such as the MIT microengine and microrocket requires the fabrication of hermetic seals capable of withstanding temperature in the range 20-600/spl deg/C and pressures in the range 100-300 atm. We describe an approach to such packaging by attaching Kovar metal tubes to a silicon device using glass seal technology. Failure due to fracture of the seals is a significant reliability concern in the baseline process: microscopy revealed a large number of voids in the glass, pre-cracks in the glass and silicon, and poor wetting of the glass to silicon. The effects of various processing and materials parameters on these phenomena were examined. A robust procedure, based on the use of metal-coated silicon substrates, was developed to ensure good wetting. The bending strength of single-tube specimens was determined at several temperatures. The dominant failure mode changed from fracture at room temperature to yielding of the glass and Kovar at 600/spl deg/C. The strength in tension at room temperature was analyzed using Weibull statistics; these results indicate a probability of survival of 0.99 at an operational pressure of 125 atm at room temperature for single tubes and a corresponding probability of 0.9 for a packaged device with 11 joints. The residual stresses were analyzed using the method of finite elements and recommendations for the improvement of packaging reliability are suggested.     

Effect of frozen storage on lipids and functional properties of proteins of dressed Indian oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps)

Changes occuring in lipids and functional properties of dressed oil sardine during storage at −20°C (±2°C) were investigated for 12 weeks. Significant (P 0.05) changes were observed in the lipids and functional properties of frozen stored oil sardine meat. The extent of lipid oxidation and hydrolysis was strongly associated with decreased protein solubility (P0.01). Decrease in protein solubility (PS) positively correlated (P0.05) with the decrease in emulsifying capacity (EC), relative viscosity (RV) of soluble protein extracts, water binding capacity and negatively correlated with the cook loss. A positive correlation (P0.001) was established between the PS and the ability of soluble proteins to emulsify and stabilise an emulsion. High positive correlation between SSP & EC (P0.001) and PS & EC (P0.001) revealed that myofibrillar proteins are the main protein that decide the emulsion properties.     

Materials selection in micromechanical design: an application of the Ashby approach

The set of materials available to microsystems designers is rapidly expanding. Techniques now exist to introduce and integrate a large number of metals, alloys, ceramics, glasses, polymers, and elastomers into microsystems, motivating the need for a rational approach for materials selection in microsystems design. As a step toward such an approach, we focus on the initial stages of materials selection for micromechanical structures with minimum feature sizes greater than 1 /spl mu/m. The variation of mechanical properties with length scale and processing parameters is discussed. Bounds for initial design values of several properties are suggested and the necessity for the measurement of other properties (especially residual stresses and intrinsic loss coefficients) is discussed. Adapting the methods pioneered by Ashby et al., materials indices are formulated for a number of properties and materials selection charts are presented. These concepts are applied to illustrate initial materials selection for shock-resistant microbeams, force sensors, micromechanical filters, and micromachined flexures. Issues associated with the integration of materials into microsystems are briefly discussed.     

The reliability of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in shockenvironments

As a first step toward formulating guidelines for the design of dynamically reliable MEMS, we analyze the mechanical response of, and formulate failure criteria for, a large class of shock loaded microsystems. MEMS are modeled as microstructures attached to elastic substrates, and the shocks are modeled as pulses of acceleration applied to the substrate over a finite time duration. The relevant time scales in the analysis are the acoustic transit time, the time period of vibrations, and the duration of the applied shock load. For many MEMS structures and shock loads (with durations in the range 50-5000 μs), the substrates respond as rigid bodies and are expected to be immune to stress-wave-induced damage. Time-domain criteria, obtained to distinguish between the impulse, resonant, and quasistatic responses of the microstructures, correlate well with the experimentally observed responses of different MEMS devices. The formulation of displacement-based and stress-based failure criteria is discussed, along with their sensitivity to the applied strain rate. A case study, in which these results are applied to evaluate the reliability of a packaged surface-micromachined device, is presented     

E-shaped patch with reactive impedance surface for high gain and broadband circularly polarized antenna

A low-profile circularly polarized (CP) antenna with high gain and broad bandwidth is aimed at 5-GHz Wi-Fi applications using a symmetrical E-shaped patch. Initially, the radiating element is modeled as a symmetrical E-shape. An array of 4 × 4 rectangular patches are arranged periodically to make up a reactive impedance surface (RIS) structure. Furthermore, the RIS structure is deployed in the middle of a symmetrical E-shaped radiating patch and a perfect electric conductor (PEC) ground plane. As a result, the broadband CP is achieved with high gain. The above-mentioned combinations have achieved a −10-dB reflection coefficient bandwidth of 21.4% (4.92–6.1 GHz) and a 3-dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 15.5% (5.25–6.1 GHz), and the antenna has attained a gain of 7.45–7.53 dBic.