NSF awards for sensor research and wireless system on a chip

Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma and Hongrui Jiang. (24K JPG)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is funding research in two important areas involving Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professors Hongrui Jiang and Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma.

Jiang, along with Xiaochun Li (Mechanical Engineering) and Shiyu Zhou (Industrial Engineering), received an NSF grant of $590,038 for the project "Sensors: Design, Fabrication, and Application of Distributed Micro Sensors Embedded in Metal Tooling." The project will develop a sensing methodology that enables highly reliable and accurate monitoring and diagnosis for manufacturing processes. It will use a systems approach to study the design, fabrication, optimization, assessment, and applications of distributed micro thin-film sensors embedded in metal tooling that is fabricated by Rapid Tooling manufacturing processes.

This multidisciplinary research will advance fundamental knowledge in thin-film sensor technologies, including micro-thin-film sensor design and fabrication for high-temperature strain and temperature measurements, the embedding of microsensors into metal manufacturing tooling, and the interpretation and use of sensor data in decision-making for monitoring and controlling manufacturing processes.

The Electronics, Photonics and Device Technologies (EPDT) Program of the National Science Foundation's Electrical and Communications Systems (ECS) Division recently awarded $200,974 over three years to Ma in support of research to advance the fundamental understanding of the high power operation mechanisms and manufacturing technology of SiGe power heterojunction bipolar transistors. The goal is to enable high frequency microwave systems to be built on silicon. The research could pave the way to realizing a future wireless communication system on a single chip.