Piezo-electric material can be controlled with current as the electrical variable, instead of voltage. The main purpose of this paper is to derive the governing equations for a currentcontrolled piezo-electric beam and to investigate stabilizability. Besides the consideration of current control, there are several new aspects to the model here. Most significantly, magnetic effects are included. ...

The serviceability of microfluidics-based instrumentation including 'lab-on-a-chip' systems critically depends on control of fluid motion. We are reporting here an alternative approach to microfluidics based upon the micromanipulation of discrete droplets of aqueous electrolyte by electrowetting. Using a simple open structure, consisting of two sets of opposing planar electrodes fabricated on g...

In this work, we present a methodological approach to analyze an enhanced dielectrophoresis (DEP) system from both a circuit analysis and electrothermal view points. In our developed model, we have taken into account various phenomena and constraints such as voltage degradation (due to the presence of the protecting oxide layer), oxide breakdown, instrumentation limitations, and thermal effects...

Classical continuum mechanics is used extensively to predict the properties of nanoscale materials such as graphene. The bending rigidity, κ, is an important parameter that is used, for example, to predict the performance of graphene nanoelectromechanical devices and also ripple formation. Despite its importance, there is a large spread in the theoretical predictions of κ for few-layer graphene...

When voltage is suddenly applied to vertical, parallel dielectric-coated electrodes dipped into a liquid with finite conductivity, the liquid responds by rising up to reach a new hydrostatic equilibrium height. On the microfluidic scale, the dominating mechanism impeding this electromechanically induced actuation appears to be a dynamic friction force that is directly proportional to the veloci...

Piezoelectric tube scanners with quartered external electrodes are the most widely used nanopositioning technology in modern scanning probe microscopes. There has been increasing interest in utilizing feedback control techniques to improve bandwidth and accuracy of these nanopositioners. The use of feedback requires a sensor to be incorporated into the nanopositioning device. Noncontact displac...

We have performed mechanical and electrical characterization of individual as-grown, vertically oriented carbon nanofibers (CNFs) using in situ techniques, where such high-aspect-ratio, nanoscale structures are of interest for three-dimensional (3D) electronics, in particular 3D nano-electro-mechanical-systems (NEMS). Nanoindentation and uniaxial compression tests conducted in an in situ nanome...

A general theoretical model using the coupling effect between the torsion and bending is presented in this paper, which characterizes the static properties of the electrostatic torsional micromirror, especially its pull-in effect. A set of normalized equations governing the static actuation properties of the torsional micromirror based on the parallel plate capacitor model is derived to demonst...

We evaluate the feasibility of manipulating droplets in two dimensions by exploiting Coulombic forces acting on conductive droplets immersed in a dielectric fluid. When a droplet suspended in an immiscible fluid is located near an electrode under a dc voltage, the droplet can be charged by direct contact, by charge transfer along an electrically conducting path, or by both mechanisms. This proc...