Scanning Probe Microscopy
Probe Based Lithography
Probe based lithography involves creating nanometer sized features from photoresist and metal on conducting and semiconducting substrates. Near field optical, electrical and thermal fields are employed in combination with evaporation, etching and electroplating to provide high-speed alternatives for mask-less nanofabrication.
Nanopositioning
A nanopositioner is a electromechanical device for moving objects in three dimensions with atomic, or sub-atomic resolution. Nanopositioners are employed in applications such as imaging, fabrication and optics. This field encompasses mechanical design, sensor design, and control theory. More details.
Electroactive Optics
Piezoelectric actuators can be combined with mirrors, lenses and objectives to actively control the path and properties of an optical field or laser beam. High speed electro-optics are required for precision lasers, maskless lithography, and microscopy.
Precision Sensors
This project aims to study the fundamental limitations of capacitive, optical and magnetic position sensors. New techniques are under development to provide sub-atomic resolution over extremely wide bandwidth.
Biomedical Devices
An endoscopic pill robot is being developed for noninvasive imaging and intervention. The robot can be swallowed and includes power transmission, 6-Dimensional localization, and locomotion.
Piezo Actuators and Amplifiers
Piezo Robotics
Due to their compact size and high efficiency, piezoelectric actuators are ideal for micro-actuation in bio-inspired robotics. This project is developing actuators and mechanics for a piezoelectric dragon-fly robot.
Fleming, A. J.; Routley, B. S.; Holdsworth, J. L.
A Closed-Loop Phase-Locked Interferometer for Wide Bandwidth Position Sensing Proceedings Article
In: IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control, Sydney, 2015.
@inproceedings{C15a,
title = {A Closed-Loop Phase-Locked Interferometer for Wide Bandwidth Position Sensing},
author = {A. J. Fleming and B. S. Routley and J. L. Holdsworth},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-12-01},
booktitle = {IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control},
address = {Sydney},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Rios, S. A.; Fleming, A. J.
A New Electrical Configuration for Improving the Range of Piezoelectric Bimorph Benders Journal Article
In: Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, vol. 224, pp. 106-110, 2015.
@article{J15a,
title = {A New Electrical Configuration for Improving the Range of Piezoelectric Bimorph Benders},
author = {S. A. Rios and A. J. Fleming},
url = {https://www.precisionmechatronicslab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/J15a3.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-12-01},
journal = {Sensors and Actuators A: Physical},
volume = {224},
pages = {106-110},
abstract = {This article describes a new electrical configuration for driving piezoelectric benders. The ‘Biased Bipolar’ configuration is compatible with parallel-polled, bimorph and multimorph benders. The new configuration is similar to the standard three-wire drive method where the top electrode is biased with a DC voltage and the bottom electrode is grounded. However, the new configuration uses an alternate DC bias voltage and adjusted range for the central electrode which allows the full range of positive and negative electric fields to be utilized. Using this technique, the predicted deflection and force can be increased by a factor of 2.2 compared to the standard two wire configuration and 1.3 times for the standard three wire configuration. These predictions were verified experimentally where the measured factor of improvement in displacement and force was of 2.4 and 1.3 compared to the standard two-wire and three-wire configurations.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Bazaei, A.; Yong, Y. K.; Moheimani, S. O. R.
Internal Model Control for High-speed Spiral Scan AFM Proceedings Article
In: Australian Control Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, 2015.
@inproceedings{Bazaei2015,
title = {Internal Model Control for High-speed Spiral Scan AFM},
author = {A. Bazaei and Y. K. Yong and S. O. R. Moheimani },
year = {2015},
date = {2015-11-01},
booktitle = {Australian Control Conference, Gold Coast, Australia},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Maroufi, M.; Yong, Y. K.; Moheimani, S. O. R.
Design and Control of a MEMS Nanopositioner with Bulk Piezoresistive Sensors Proceedings Article
In: IEEE Multiconference on Systems and Control, Sydney, Australia, 2015.
@inproceedings{Maroufi2015,
title = {Design and Control of a MEMS Nanopositioner with Bulk Piezoresistive Sensors},
author = {M. Maroufi and Y. K. Yong and S. O. R. Moheimani },
url = {http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~yy582/Papers/Maroufi2015.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-09-01},
booktitle = {IEEE Multiconference on Systems and Control, Sydney, Australia},
abstract = {A 2 degree of freedom microelectromechanical system (MEMS) nanopositioner is presented in this paper. The nanopositioner is fabricated using a standard silicon-on-insulator process. The device demonstrates a bidirectional displacement in two orthogonal directions. As the displacement sensing mechanism, bulk piezoresistivity of tilted clamped-guided beams is exploited. The characterization reveals more than 15 μm displacement range and an in-plane bandwidth of above 3.6 kHz in both axes. The piezoresistive sensors provide a bandwidth which is more than ten times larger than the stage's resonant frequency. To evaluate the sensor performance in closed-loop, an integral resonant controller together with an integral tracking controller are implemented where piezoresistive sensor outputs are used as measurement. The controlled nanopositioner is used for imaging in an atomic force microscope.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Ruppert, M. G.; Moheimani, S. O. R.
Multi-Mode Q Control in Multifrequency Atomic Force Microscopy Proceedings Article
In: ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, pp. V004T09A009, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 2015.
@inproceedings{Ruppert2015,
title = {Multi-Mode Q Control in Multifrequency Atomic Force Microscopy},
author = {M. G. Ruppert and S. O. R. Moheimani},
doi = {10.1115/DETC2015-46989},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-08-01},
booktitle = {ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference},
pages = {V004T09A009},
address = {Boston, Massachusetts, USA},
abstract = {Various Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) modes have emerged which rely on the excitation and detection of multiple eigenmodes of the microcantilever. The conventional control loops employed in multifrequency AFM (MF-AFM) such as bimodal imaging where the fundamental mode is used to map the topography and a higher eigenmode is used to map sample material properties only focus on maintaining low bandwidth signals such as amplitude and/ or frequency shift. However, the ability to perform additional high bandwidth control of the quality (Q) factor of the participating modes is believed to be imperative to unfolding the full potential of these methods. This can be achieved by employing a multi-mode Q control approach utilizing positive position feedback. The controller exhibits remarkable performance in arbitrarily modifying the Q factor of multiple eigenmodes as well as guaranteed stability properties when used on flexible structures with collocated actuators and sensors. A controller design method based on pole placement optimization is proposed for setting an arbitrary on-resonance Q factor of the participating eigenmodes. Experimental results using bimodal AFM imaging on a two component polymer sample are presented.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}