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Micro- and Nanoscale Systems Engineering in the Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering Graduate Fields at Cornell
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Affiliated Faculty:
Harold Craighead,
David Erickson,
Brian Kirby,
Ephrahim Garcia,
Mingming Wu
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Read about our interests below, or click on one of the topics above to find out more information.
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Micro- and nanoscale systems are currently driving a large portion of modern engineering research because of
the impact these systems can have on scientific discovery and technological development.
Researchers in our Mechanical
Engineering Graduate Field are taking advantage of our extensive nanofabrication infrastructure and experience
to develop novel devices and explore new and exciting physics.
Our micro- and nanoscale engineering efforts encompass numerous fabrication techniques and applications.
Our research includes miniaturized chemical analysis systems, chemical, optical, and mechanical
sensors and actuators, and fundamental studies of thin film and interfacial phenomena.
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A microfluidic injector for mixing and reacting approximately 500 picoliters of fluid at high pressures (70 atm)
before injecting the results into a miniaturized high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system.
A chemically-etched glass substrate holds laser-polymerized fluoropolymer elements that open and close fluidic
channels just like transistors in microelectronic circuits open and close electrical connections.
(Courtesy
Brian Kirby) |
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Integration of optical devices with fluidic structures. Upper image shows schematic of
soft-lithography coupling with nanophotonics. Bottom image shows a
scanning electron microscope image of nanoscale precision fluidic
addressability in a photonic crystal.
(Courtesy David Erickson)
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Usually, the newest and most exciting research in our area bridges gaps between technical and application areas
and thus defies easy categorization;
however, we have categorized our research into a number of areas, including:
These topics are described on separate pages on this site.
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This website also contains information about graduate coursework in micro-
and nanosystems engineering and information about our
Micro- and Nanosystems Engineering Seminar Series.
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A silicon cantilever designed to allow attogram mass sensitivity detection
of chemicals. A 50 nm gold dot on the Si surface allows chemical functionalization
for biosensor applications.
(Courtesy Harold Craighead)
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