Ertugrul Berkcan

An approach for the study of reliability for a MEMS magnetic actuator

This paper presents a summary of the design for reliability and the reliability test procedures used for the design, fabrication and testing of a MEMS magnetic actuator. The MEMS device reliability is determined incorporating device structure, its fabrication process, the packaging, & their interacting contributions. The goal of the MEMS actuator reliability design task is to increase the probability of failure free operation of a MEMS based system for a specified time period and the use environment. The design for reliability and the subsequent reliability testing procedures are used to determine the reliability of the MEMS actuator and enable the determination of the reliability of the final product that the MEMS device is becoming part of.

Sensors with centroid-based common sensing scheme and their multiplexing

The ability to multiplex sensors with different measurands but with a common sensing scheme is of importance in aircraft and aircraft engine applications; this unification of the sensors into a common interface has major implications for weight, cost, and reliability. A new class of sensors based on a common sensing scheme and their E/O Interface has been developed. The approach detects the location of the centroid of a beam of light; the set of fiber optic sensors with this sensing scheme include linear and rotary position, temperature, pressure, as well as duct Mach number. The sensing scheme provides immunity to intensity variations of the source or due to environmental effects on the fiber. A detector spatially multiplexed common electro-optic interface for the sensors has been demonstrated with a position and a temperature sensor.