The focus of this thesis involves developing general fabrication processes relevant to the manufacture of two new devices for the Microscale technology Energy and Chemical Systems (MECS) program at Oregon State University. The two MECS devices developed, capture dots and transparent thin-film heaters (TTFHs), require unique process development for successful...
Several 316 stainless steel meso-scopic devices were made using a diffusion
soldering process. Tensile strength and pressure drop of the devices were
measured and metallurgical examinations were made of the joints. Continuous
bonds were observed in the sample cross-section specimens. Strengths of the
diffusion soldered joints were up to 56%...
This thesis presents a channelized digital receiver design for UWB sytems in a multipath indoor environment. The UWB technology has been used for commercial and military purposes due to a number of advantages such as low-power consumption, noise-like and carrier free. The energy of UWB signal is spread over a...
Two improvements to the established procedures for synthesis and response detection of ion-selective optical sensors (optodes) were introduced.
The first improvement addresses the drawback of organic dye (optode-localized chromoionophore) photobleaching. This positively impacts fluorescence response and allows for (1) direct measurement of hydrogen ion activity upon binding with the dye,...
The concept of reducing laboratory operations in scale such that they fit on a microfluidic chip has been met with great enthusiasm. Lab-on-a-chip devices promise to be cost effective to operate due to reduced reagent consumption, have the potential to offer shorter analysis times due to their short path lengths,...
This paper proposes a novel means of using analog correlators to improve upon existing Ultra-Wideband receiver architectures. Current architectures aim for an all-digital design for the sake of ease of implementation and conceptual simplicity. This causes some notable design challenges including an ultra-high sampling rate, and difficulty capturing multipath energy....
Diffusion bonding cycle times can be a large cost factor in the production of metal microchannel devices. The challenge is to significantly minimize this cost by reducing the bonding cycle time through rapid and uniform heating and cooling within the bonding process. Heating rates in diffusion bonding processes are typically...
Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors are versatile devices that can be configured to sense a variety of measurands such as temperature and pressure. The potential use of surface acoustic wave devices for magnetic field detection is explored in this study. Compared to current magnetic field sensors, a sensor based on...
Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio is the transmission of data using an extremely wide bandwidth and very low power spectral density. In this thesis, the mereits and challenges of UWB architectures versus conventional narrowband architectures will be compared. Pulsed UWB systems can be implemented with very simple architectures. These advantages make UWB...
PDMS membrane-based microvalves are becoming increasingly more important for the control of fluid flow within MECS applications such as microreactors used to synthesize nanoparticles and biological macromolecules. The motivation for pursuing PDMS membrane-based microvalves is for implementing a plug flow microreactor to simulate slug flow yielding a narrower residence time...