Parylene as a New MEMS Material and its Applications

Presented by:Prof. Yu-Chong TaiProfessor of Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering,CaltechAbstract:This seminar will review the research on parylene MEMS material, technology and applications that is performed at the Caltech MEMS Lab. Parylene is widely available through a unique room-temperature, pinhole-free and conformal CVD deposition method. This benign parylene preparation process makes it a suitable technology for post-CMOS integration. Material wise, parylene has a low melting temperature around 300oC, but it is rather inert and biocompatible. We have shown that it is straightforward to make parylene thin films with a tensile intrinsic stress by controlling the last thermal steps. This feature allows free-standing parylene MEMS structures in many designs. As a result, we have successfully developed a multi-layer parylene MEMS technology including buried metal layers and have demonstrated various parylene MEMS applications including microstructures, microsensors and actuators. I will cover many parylene applications such as parylene-based filters, neurocages, flow sensors, pressure sensors, accelerometers, bolometers, valves, pumps, etc. It is my belief that the brightest future of parylene MEMS is for fully integrated functional systems. To this point, I will discuss two examples of retinal implants and HPLC-based labs on-a-chip.Refreshments will be served at 2:30pmAll first-year MASC students are required to attend

Location: Vivian Hall of Engineering (VHE) - 217

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: YUN TAO