This event is free and open for public. CER Research Seminar

Research Seminar ”Wireless Microsystems for Biomedical Applications”

When and where:

Thursday, February 29, 2012, 5 pm

Nazarbayev University, Block 9, Room 9151 (BG Coffee-Seminar Room)

Speaker: Dr. Olgac Ergeneman, Post Doctoral Researcher, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Biomicrorobotics is the emerging field combining the principles of robotics with the broad technological innovations of MEMS for use in biomedical applications, such as in vivo minimally or noninvasive diagnosis and treatment. There is strong interest in biomicrorobots that are capable of performing localized sensing or drug delivery in parts of the body that are currently inaccessible or too invasive to access. Energy generation and storage have not yet been successfully miniaturized to the microscale, and transmitting energy using electrical wires is extremely limiting. However, energy transfer to microscale devices can be done wirelessly via externally applied magnetic fields. Magnetic microrobots, their control, and several applications such as puncturing vessels, oxygen sensing, and drug delivery are presented in this talk.

In the second part of this talk we focus on wireless passive microresonators. These devices can be actuated and read out remotely and operated in conditions where physical access to the device is limited. Such systems are especially well suited for bio-sensing in the analysis of biomaterials and in-vivo diagnosis. Totally passive microsystems have simple fabrication and packaging without wire connections to the microdevice. Fabrication of the microresonators from two magnetic materials, CoNi and a magnetic polymer composite, the development of the actuation and readout setup, and successful operation of microresonators in different conditions are presented. The proof of concept for mass sensing is also performed by loading the microresonator with microbeads and observing the resonance frequency shift.

Language: English