Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems
NSEC Grant # 0832819
Pis: Alex Zettl, Arun Majumdar, Tsu-Jae King, Roya Maboudian, Peidong Yang
Societal Implications
New Detection Platform
COINS Application Drivers
Margaret Taylor
COINS finds itself at the intersection of three different
contexts: regulatory, societal, and environmental.
This effort explores these areas, and the interactions
between them, in order to increase understanding of
the governance of emergence technologies, and to
support the responsible development of
nanotechnologies, per the National Nanotechnology
Initiative’s (NNI) stated goals. This research will inform
COINS’ selection of sensing analytes, identify the
specific benefits of and risk mitigation strategies for
the PANDA platform, and engage appropriate
stakeholders to ensure that PACMON technologies
are deployed effectively. Further, the team seeks to
fulfill the mandates of the 21st Century
Nanotechnology Research and Development Act,
which requires interdisciplinary centers to provide
that:
“Public input and outreach [are] to be integrated into
the Program by the convening of regular and ongoing
public discussions, through mechanisms such as
citizens’ panels, consensus conferences, and
educational events, as appropriate” (117 Stat. 1924).
Education & Outreach
Personal and Community Environmental Monitoring (PACMON)
•
 Today’s personal environmental monitors are bulky, heavy, noisy, and run
for only 8 hours at a time with limited sensitivity
 COINS goal: better air-quality detection
 Should be portable, sensitive, low-cost, low-power
 Something that people can use easily
To achieve its mission, COINS is:
– Carrying out the basic and applied research necessary to develop, characterize,
and integrate a new nanomechanical detection platform
– Working to combine nanoscale sensing, power, electronics, wireless
communication, and mobility into a single platform
State-of-the-art personal environmental monitor.
Tagging Tracking, and Locating (TTL)
U.S. military chem/bio threat
detection system used in
Iraq, 2003.
Earthquake-damaged
building with difficult access,
Mexico City
 In Iraq, the military relied on pigeons to let them
know when dangerous chemicals were present
 Canary in the coal mine: 100 year-old tech.
 In earthquake or storm collapsed buildings, difficult
to locate people
 COINS goal: efficiently detect and track chemical
agents, people, other targets
 Should be mobile, communicate wirelessly,
run for a year
 Dimensions no larger than 1x1x1 mm
Undergraduate Accomplishments
Summer Research Programs
•
UC Berkeley has grown from lab
internship experience in Years 1
& 2 into a full service summer
program in Years 3 and beyond
•
UC Merced began with 3 interns
in their first year and grew to 20
this past summer
•
2 patents & 1 start up were the
result of a COINS undergraduate
research project that was a
collaboration between a UC
Merced & UC Berkeley faculty
member
Highlight: 64% of the UCB 2006 Class has continued on to PhD programs; 57%
of them have a focus in nanoscience or nanotechnology.
COINS Accomplishment: Electronics Example
COINS Accomplishment: Energy Example
Community College Partnership
Large-Area Silicon Nanostructured Photovoltaics
NEM Relays for Ultra-Low-Power Digital Integrated Circuits
Tsu-Jae King Liu
Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relays offer ideal switching performance: zero off-state
leakage, abrupt switching and high on-state conductance, over a wide range of
operating temperatures. NEM relays can be co-fabricated with CMOS on the same
substrate, for managing CMOS static power consumption, and for ultra-low-power
embedded static memory (SRAM).
Furthermore, logic operations can also be performed only with NEM relays in a very
innovative CMOS-less technology with zero standby power. Due to their high tolerance
to radiation and heat, NEM relays can provide for robust electronic systems. As the
dimensions of a relay are scaled down, its switching speed increases. The feasibility of
high speed relays with ~1ns switching time is now being explored.
Berkeley City College
Peidong Yang and Arun Majumdar
One of the primary contributing costs for silicon photovoltaic cells is the
starting silicon wafer, which requires extensive purification to maintain
reasonable performance. Therefore, reducing the required silicon quality
and quantity will help drive large scale implementation of silicon
photovoltaics. Using solar cells with nanostructured radial p-n junctions
may provide a path to simultaneously solve both of these problems by
orthogonalizing the light absorption and charge separation directions while
allowing for improved light scattering and trapping. We have developed a
simple, scalable fabrication method for making ordered periodic silicon
nanowire radial p-n junction solar cell arrays. These cells give efficiencies
of up to 3.6% under AM1.5G simulated sunlight with only a 25 micron thick
active silicon absorbing layer and 2.7% with an 8 micron absorbing layer,
outperforming planar control cells.
Off state:
ID = 0
On state:
ID  VDS
• Electrostatic force actuates cantilever beam
• Resistive contact is made in the on state
•
Nano seminar series began in Spring
08, delivered by COINS scientists
•
BCC students have participated in
Summer Research Program – 2009
participant started the physics program
at UCB this fall
•
Six-week lab internship for BCC
physics intructor Dr. Naima Azgui
(Summer ’08) to learn concepts,
instrumentation, and begin
development of curriculum outline
Highlight: Dr. Azgui has submitted a nano curriculum to the BCC curriculum committee. If approved, it
will be incorporated into introductory physics courses for Spring 2010.
Measured ID-VG characteristics of a
fabricated NEM relay.
1

m
Diversity
Challenge: Increase the diversity of COINS at all levels
COINS Accomplishment: Wireless Example
COINS Accomplishment: Mobility Example
Carbon Nanotube Radio
Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod (DASH)
Roya Maboudian and Ron Fearing
DASH is a small, lightweight, power autonomous robot capable of running at speeds
up to 15 body lengths per second (see video). Drawing inspiration from
biomechanics, DASH has a sprawled posture and uses an alternating tripod gait to
achieve dynamic open-loop horizontal locomotion. The kinematic design which uses
only a single drive motor and allows for a high power density is presented. The
design is implemented using a scaled Smart Composite Manufacturing (SCM)
process. Evidence is given that DASH runs with a gait that can be characterized
using the spring-loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) model. In addition to being fast,
DASH is also well suited to surviving falls from large heights, due to the uniquely
compliant nature of its structure. DASH has been equipped with gecko-inspired
nanofiber arrays giving controllable adhesion for all-terrain mobility.
Alex Zettl (UCB).
W have constructed a fully functional, fully integrated radio receiver,
orders-of-magnitude smaller than any previous radio, from a single
carbon nanotube. The single nanotube serves, at once, as all major
components of a radio: antenna, tuner, amplifier, and demodulator.
The antenna and tuner are implemented in a radically different manner
than traditional radios, receiving signals via high frequency mechanical
vibrations of the nanotube rather than through traditional electrical
means.
We have incorporated diversity
recruitment into all of our
activities and have a strong,
comprehensive plan to increase
the numbers of underrepresented
populations.
Accomplishments:
•Gender diversity among faculty has increased from 20% in Year 3 to 24% in Year 5.
•Graduate Hispanic students have increased from 3% in Year 3 to 22% in Year 5.
University of California, Berkeley (Lead
Institution)
The nanotube radio's extremely small size could enable radical new
applications such as radio controlled devices small enough to exist in the
human bloodstream, or simply smaller, cheaper, and more efficient
wireless devices such as cellular phones.
Paul Alivisatos (Chem, MSE)
Kris Pister (EECS)
Daryl Chrzan (MSE)
Darrell Porcello (LHS)
Michael Crommie (Physics)
Ramamoorthy Ramesh (MSE,
Physics)
Ronald Fearing (EECS)
Amy Herr (BioE)
Ali Javey (EECS)
800 nm diam.
LDPE nanofibers
Tsu-Jae King Liu (EECS)
Climbing slope using high friction nanofibers
Luke Lee (Bioengineering)
Liwei Lin (ME)
Seung-Wuk Lee (BioE)
COINS Accomplishments: Sensing Example
Roya Maboudian (ChemE)
Arun Majumdar (ME)
TNT Selective Coating for Nanoscale Sensing Platform
California Institute of Technology
Keith Schwab (Physics, Applied Physics,
Bioengineering)
Michael Roukes (Physics, Applied Physics,
Bioengineering)
Stanford University
Sayeef Salahuddin (EECS)
Beth Pruitt (Mechanical Engineering)
Rachel Segalman (ChemE)
Tom Kenny (Mechanical Engineering)
Ting Xu (MSE)
Roger Howe (Electrical Engineering)
Margaret Taylor (Public Policy)
Feng Wang (Physics)
Junqiao Wu (MSE)
University of California, Merced
Valerie Leppert (School of Engineering)
Christopher Viney (School of Engineering)
Peidong Yang (Chem)
Alex Zettl (Physics)
10 Represented Departments: Applied Physics, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry,
Environmental Science, Policy & Management, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Materials
Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics
Seung-Wuk Lee and Arun Majumdar
The development of fully integrated sensing devices that can
perform real-time monitoring of personal or community exposure
to toxic chemicals and biological hazards remains an enormous
challenge. We have developed a sensitive nano-coating method
that can be used to immobilize the selective receptors onto
device platforms with intact binding efficacy of these recognition
peptides. Coating technologies for TNT and DNT peptides using
polymer matrices were developed, which we demonstrated
using sensitive quartz crystal microbalance. Using nuclear
magnetic resonance spectroscopy and computer modeling, we
were able to elucidate the molecular level mechanism of the
specific binding properties of the TNT recognition peptide.
Phase 2