TechBlog

r. Yu-Chong Tai, professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is an electrical engineer whose early work pioneered a new direction that is now called, “microelectromechanical systems” (MEMS). He has published on just about every facet of MEMS, from shear-stress sensors to micromachining to thermal sensors to lab-on-a-chip. His recent research forays are leading him into studies of biological systems at the micro level. According to our Special Topics analysis of MEMS research over the past decade, Dr. Tai’s work ranks at #5, with 27 qualifying papers cited a total of 272 times. In the ISI Essential Science Indicators Web product, Dr. Tai’s record includes 41 papers cited a total of 383 times to date. Dr. Tai points to some of his earlier papers and presentations, which are outside of the range of our database, as very important in the field. Among these is a presentation report (Fan L.S., Tai Y.C., Muller R.S., “IC-processed electrostatic micromotors,” Tech. Digest, IEEE International Electron Device Meeting [IEDM ’88], San Francisco, Calif., Dec. 11-14, 1988, pp.666-669; and Fan L.S., Tai Y.C., Muller R.S., “Integrated movable micromechanical structures for sensors and actuators,” IEEE Trans. On Electron Devices ED-35:724-730, 1988). Dr. Tai is a graduate of National Taiwan University and received his master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer sciences from University of California, Berkeley. He took a faculty appoint at the California Institute of Technology in 1989.

Your work is in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Could you explain what this field is?

The name MEMS didn’t even exist in the ‘80s while I was in graduate school. My major was integrated circuits (IC) then. I learned solid-state devices and IC technology. So I know how to make these devices. It all started with an interesting question. We knew that the IC industry was really big in the 1980s. People had already invested billions, if not trillions, of dollars in IC technology. The question was: can we do something with the IC technology for applications other than IC? In other words, IC technology is a huge investment, could something else benefit from it? Here, IC is really only electrical devices. What devices, other than electrical devices, could we build? From an academic point of view, this whole world is either electrical or mechanical. For example, even biology and its fundamental science are all electrical or mechanical. Similarly, chemistry is no different.

Continue reading ‘MEMS: An INTERVIEW with Dr. Yu-Chong Tai’ »

The Springer journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry has chosen the Austrian chemist Thomas Lummerstorfer (31) as the recipient of its Best Paper Award 2007. Lummerstorfer’s paper “Monolayers at solid-solid interfaces probed with infrared spectroscopy” discusses an infrared technique which is expected to gain substantial importance in various fields of nanoscience. The winning paper will receive special prominence on an ABC cover. The Award is accompanied by EUR 1,000, sponsored by Springer.

Lummerstorfer’s paper is a review of his work establishing a new sandwich-like optical configuration for the measurement of infrared spectra of thin films and solid-solid interfaces. The study represents the first experimental demonstration of an enhancement effect that was theoretically predicted several decades ago but could never be verified experimentally.

This configuration allows not only the measurements of monolayer infrared spectra on a wide range of metal and nonmetal substrates with greatly improved sensitivity, but also allows reactions and processes taking place at the interface between two solid materials to be monitored spectroscopically.

Continue reading ‘Unique infrared technique finds applications in nanoscience’ »