CHAIR OF

MICRO SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

FOR MEDICAL ENGINEERING

The discipline of microsystems engineering offers a wide variety of possible research assistant or thesis topics. They include on the one hand the precision technologies for fabricating and characterizing micro systems and on the other hand the micro systems themselves. It is our philosophy that such projects are not only some time of work, but culminate in tangible results such as equipment that we use in our lab or new working principles or a applications that we can publish. If you are interested, please contact us with a brief CV and transcript, and we can discuss with you, which project first you best, and at the same time our current needs for research.

MEMS technologies

• Laser structuring: We are building a laser micro structuring system. Possible topics include the overall mechanical construction and housing of the system or programming the 4-axes positioning system.
  
  
• Optical surface profilometry: We are building a profilometer that can dynamically characterize surfaces with a resolution of a few tens of nanometers. Your potential topics include the mechanical setup, programming the control software or integrating the driving electronics of various micro systems.
  
  
• Precision assembly: Similar to the other systems, you can contribute to a precision pick-and-place system with different integrated tools in an open architecture.

Micro systems and fundamental working principles

• Novel compliant mechanisms: The fundamental idea is to convert small strains into large deformations, e.g., for piezoelectric materials, electroactive polymers (“artificial muscles”) or for thermal actuation. We use both non-linear buckling mechanisms and linear bending mechanisms, and in particular also their combination.
  
  
• Our focus in the applications of such mechanisms is on optics and fluidics, where we develop working principles that intrinsically integrate the actuation mechanism in the device. One example are the adaptive lenses, that enable particularly compact or highly resolved imaging systems.
  
  
• Sensors: On the one hand, micro systems can act as sensors, but on the other hand they also use sensors. Our particular interest is to investigate ho we can use the actuators also as sensors, either to provide closed-loop control without additional sensors, or to create multifunctional transducers.
  
  
• Linear actuators: You can try out new mechanisms to create large, macroscopic displacements with miniature actuators. In particular we are interested in planar or flexible devices. Potential applications vary from endoscopy to optical systems.