Research in the Sensors, Energy, and Automation Lab (SEAL)

1. Research in the Sensors, Energy, and Automation Lab (SEAL) Director: Alexander Mamishev Graduate Students: Bing JiangMobile Monitoring of Underground Cable Systems Xiaobei LiFringing Electric Field Tomography of Materials Kishore Sundara-RajanFringing Electric Field Sensing of Moisture in Paper and Pharmaceuticals Gabriel RoweResin Transfer Mold Monitoring using Fringing Electric Field Sensors and Biomedical Applications for Flexible Sensor Arrays Nels Jewell-LarsenMicro-Cooling of Electronics Using of Corona Air Propulsion Dinh BowmanRFID-Enhanced Sensor Technology for Power Network Monitoring

2. Research in SEAL Challenging…

3. Research in SEAL Rewarding… • SEAL Members… • Get Internships and Jobs • Travel to Conferences in interesting places • Publish Papers • Learn important skills for the real world • Interact in a dynamic, exciting environment • SEAL Members… • Get where they want to go! • SEAL Members win Awards • Mary Gates Fellowship • NASA Space Grant • Grainger Fellowship • EEIC Assistantship • Intel Research Award • Best Paper Awards • DEIS Fellowship • APPA DEED Fellowship • EE Bergseth Scholarship • Poster Winners at • International Conferences • SEAL Scholarship

4. Research in SEAL Mind Expanding… New Skills

5. Research in SEAL Fun!

6. Micro-Cooling of Electronics Using Corona Air Propulsion Problem: Heat generation is becoming a major bottleneck in high density electronics, especially 3D architectures and power electronics. The market for thermal management products (mini cooling technology) has exceeded $1 billion dollars a year and growing at a compound annual rate of 15%. • Advantages: • Silent, no moving parts • No vibration or gyroscopic effects • Can be integrated into chip structures • Versatile shape and size • Dynamic air flow profile Solution: A MEMS-scale solid-state air pump using ionic propulsion to air-cool micro-electronics such as Intel processors Sponsors:Intel, Kronos Air Technologies Graduate Student: Nels Jewell-Larsen

7. Fringing Electric Field Sensing of Moisture in Paper and Pharmaceuticals Pharmaceutical sample Paper Machine • Problem: • Accurate moisture measurement at the wet end of the paper machine has NEVER been successfully done before. • Very noisy and harsh environment. • Very high accuracy requirements • Advantages of Fringing Electric Field Sensors: • Very simple to construct • Only require single-sided access to sample • No moving parts • Can be customized to many sizes and geometries • Can detect minute changes in moisture Solution: Fringing electric field sensors to measure moisture content on the very large scale in paper machines and the very small scale for pharmaceutical samples Sponsors: Metso Automation, Wyeth Graduate Student: Kishore Sundara-Rajan

8. Monitoring of Resin Transfer Molding Process for Next Generation Aircraft F22 Raptor: Made with Resin Transfer Mold process • Problem: • Resin Transfer Mold process needs to be optimized for efficiency and cost • Requires monitoring all aspects of RTM process • Must create Feed-forward control loop • Advantages of Approach: • Capable of simultaneously measuring degree of cure, viscosity, pressure, temperature, and any other variable of interest throughout the duration of cure cycle. • Real-time, continuous, 3-D mapping of these variables. • Non-intrusive, simple, low cost. Solution: Development of a sensor and control system for the resin transfer mold process. Sensors are capable of accurately measuring flow-front position as a function of time. Sensors are being designed to perform dielectric spectroscopy for cure-monitoring. Graduate Students: Sponsors: AFOSR (Air Force) Gabriel Rowe

9. Mobile Monitoring of Underground Cable Systems • Problem: • Scheduled maintenance of the underground cable system is costly and inefficient • Testing the impedance at defined test points (e.g. each mile) is not sufficient to detect certain types of incipient faults • A human cannot test every inch of an underground cable efficiently August 14, 2003 Robot in Cable Trough • Advantages of Robotic Monitoring: • Accurate: every inch of the cable can be tested for hot-spots, cracks, water tree, and aging in the cable • Cheap: Robotic monitors can perform inspections cost-efficiently • Repetitive: Saves human inspectors from performing highly-repetitive tests Solution: Mobile Monitoring Robot using fringing electric field, acoustic, and infrared sensors. Prototype traverses along cable then stops to inspect cable. Underground Power Tunnel Graduate Student: Bing Jiang Sponsors: NSF, APT

10. Fringing Electric Field Tomography of Materials Before After August 14, 2003 August 13, 2003 Programmable fringing electric field sensors • Problem: • Many material complexes such as food products are difficult to test the quantity of moisture or properties directly • In industrial settings, a sensor can often only access the material from a single side • Inconsistency between products is not desired Parallel plate sensor • Advantages of Fringing Electric Field Sensors: • Can access sample from single side • Electrodes can be programmed to exhibit a field in material that gives a tomographic view of material • Capacitance measurements of moisture exhibit a strong effect due to the large polarizability of water molecules Solution: Use fringing electric field sensors to measure multiple properties with the same sensor array. Present prototypes can measure moisture in cookies! Graduate Student: Xiaobei Li Sponsors:

11. RFID-Enhanced Sensor Technology for Power Network Monitoring (new topic) RFID Sensors in Passenger Vehicle Tires Radio Frequency IDentification Tags Aging Power Infrastructure • Problem: • The power industry needs to better maintain its enormous and aging infrastructure • No matter what model of maintenance, testing and monitoring the infrastructure is costly and inefficient • What if the network could tell you where and when the problem was or even before the problem occurred? • RFID Sensors for the Power Industry: • RFID sensors are proposed for inexpensive monitoring of the power infrastructure • Using energy harvesting, RFID sensors could be powered by the same thing it is measuring • Mobile monitoring platforms could be used to deploy the sensors and collect data from the sensors periodically Solution: Develop RFID sensors that can analyze the quality of power cables to determine if they need maintenance. Generate huge savings for utilities in maintenance costs. Graduate Student: Dinh Bowman Sponsors: LG Electronics

12. Biomedical Applications for Flexible Sensor Arrays (new topic) Prototype of Single Cell Amputee with lower-limb prosthetic Simulations of Sensor Cell • Problem: • Wearing a prosthetic limb for long periods of time or in active circumstances causes pressure sores • No technology exists to monitor pressure and shear gradients at a low enough level to predict pressure sore formation at the prosthetic-residual limb interface • Advantages of Sensitive Skin: • High resolution sensing of forces that lead to pressure sores • Compatible with an embedded system to actuate a suction socket or complex pressure relieving system to maintain a tight fit • Robust material can be used in other applications to monitor interface forces and conditions between humans and machines Solution: Multimodal sensor array at the prosthetic interface to determine the pressure, shear, humidity and temperature. Knowledge of the conditions will help prevent sores from wearing prosthetics. Graduate Student: Gabriel Rowe Sponsors: NIH