- Date:
- 2005-2009
- Theme:
- Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-chip
The ability to transport species and handling fluids in microchannels with ease and precision is central concept to the μTAS devices. Much attention has been focused on micropump research, not only for their use in μTAS systems, but also for a large variety of applications such as: aerospace and aircraft engineering, medical, pharmaceutical devices, cosmetics, paints and inks, food and beverage, environmental, energy and fuel, electronics smart devices applications, clinical and analytical lab.
Advances in microelectronics fabrication processes have allowed the miniaturization of mechanical pumps, however non-mechanical pumps have several advantages in handling flow rates in the range of nanolitre or picolitre per minute. In biomedical technology, pumps for handling extremely small fluid amounts become more and more important.
Microsystems for biological analysis routinely use solid-state electrokinetic micropumps which play an important role in microfluidic pumping. AC Electrokinetic micropumps in particular AC electroosmosis pump can be used to pump fluids using planar electrodes which induce electrical forces on the fluid. However, planar electrodes do not provide sufficient back pressure which limits the pumping capability of the micropump.
In this project a new design for the AC electroosmotic is introduced. The new AC electroosmotic desig presents the transition from planar microelectrode arrays to planar with High Aspect Ratio (HAR) pillars in order to increase the conductive surface area for the microchannel. The physical mechanism of AC electrosmosis is the motion of induced Electrical Double Layers on microelectrodes driven into motion by the electric field generated by the electrodes. Since AC-electrosmosis is a surface driven effect, increasing the surface area increases the power coupled into the fluid movement. By taking the channel volume and filling it with conductive pillars, the surface area therefore increases, but the volume remains the same, increasing the drive per unit volume. This will have the effect of increasing the pressure generated by the pump. One possible side effect is that the internal resistance of the pump will rise, reducing the maximum flow rate. However, it is expected that the increase in driving surface area will offset this to a degree.
To explore and realize the proposed pumping principle we benifited from available expertise of Professor Mark. J. Madou who specialises in Bio-MEMS field and microfabrication techniques. Prof. Madou and his team at UC Irvine have been able to construct HAR pillars made out of pyrolyzed SU-8 (conductive polymer). The current planar electrodes are made out of gold and it is desired to make the pillars out of gold as well. However we assume that the pillars made by gold undergo chemical reactions involving dissolution and redeposition. In contrast the pyrolyzed SU-8 pillars will be less conductive than the gold ones but they are perfectly polarisable, which is ideal for AC electroosmosis. was processed.
In this work a novel version of AC-electroosmosis micropump was designed, in a way it incorporates 3D high-aspect-ratio electrodes, the idea behind the implementation of the 3D electrodes is to increase the surface of the electrodes as the AC electroosmosis is a surface driven effect phenomenon. However the fabrication of high-aspect-ratio electrodes is very difficult using standard electroplating techniques. In this work a new technology using Carbon-MEMS technology was adopted. The fabrication process of the new AC-electroosmosis micropump was developed. A good results of the new device has shown a successful functionality and improvement to previous design.
Primary investigators
- har04r
- Nicolas Green
- Hywel Morgan
Secondary investigator
- Prof. Marc Madou
Partner
- University of California Irvine (UCI)
Associated research groups
- Nano Research Group
- Southampton Nanofabrication Centre
- Date:
- 2008-2012
- Themes:
- Formal Methods, Systems Engineering
- Funding:
- EU
The overall aim of the EC Information and Communication Technologies FP7 DEPLOY Project is to make major advances in engineering methods for dependable systems through the deployment of formal engineering methods. Formal engineering methods enable greater mastery of complexity than found in traditional software engineering processes. It is the central role played by mechanically-analysed formal models throughout the system development flow that enables mastery of complexity.
As well as leading to big improvements in system dependability, greater mastery of complexity also leads to greater productivity by reducing the expensive test-debug-rework cycle and by facilitating increased reuse of software.
The work of the project is being driven by the tasks of achieving and evaluating industrial take-up, initially by DEPLOY's industrial partners, of DEPLOY's methods and tools, together with the necessary further research on methods and tools.
Primary investigator
Secondary investigators
- mrp
- Colin Snook
Associated research group
- Dependable Systems & Software Engineering
- Date:
- 2008-2008
- Theme:
- Agent Based Computing
Associated research group
- Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
- Date:
- 2006-
- Theme:
- Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks
To develop a narrow-band RF-based Time-of-Flight (TOF) locationing system with sub-meter positioning resolution which can be used to location nodes within wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This will enable accurate locationing without the requirement of wired infrastructure and synchronisation between devices. Further development will involve the adaption of these techniques to relative locationing algorithms.
Primary investigator
- bt05r
Secondary investigators
Associated research groups
- Electronic Systems and Devices Group
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Date:
- 2006-
To develop an narrow-band RF-based Time-of-Flight (TOF) locationing system with sub-meter positioning resolution which can be used to location nodes within wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This will enable accurate locationing without the requirement of wired infrastructure and synchronisation between devices. Further development will involve the adaption of these techniques to relative locationing algorithms.
Primary investigator
- Bjorn Thorbjornsen
Secondary investigators
- Prof Neil White
- Prof Andrew Brown
- Dr Jeff Reeve
Associated research groups
- Electronic Systems and Devices Group
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Date:
- 2006-2010
- Themes:
- Web Science, E-Business Technologies, Knowledge Technologies
- Funding:
- DTI (TP/5/DAT/6/I/H0410D)
MBI is a project with a clear objective of making a significant performance improvement in UK business to business (B2B) marketing activities in the 5-7 year timeframe. The project plans to aggregate a broad range of business information, providing unparalleled insight into UK business activity and develop rich semantic search and navigation tools to allow any business to 'place their sales proposition in front of a prospective buyer' confident of the fact that the recipient has a propensity to buy.
Primary investigators
Secondary investigators
- jd
- ms8
- lz
- hsmi
- br205r
Partners
- ParcelForce Worldwide, 3M, pH Group
- British Gas Business
- AXA
Associated research group
- Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
- Date:
- 2008-2012
- Themes:
- Nanomaterials and Dielectrics, Novel Sensors, Systems Design
- Funding:
- EU
The Microflex project is a Framework program 7 EU funded project and was submitted to the FP7-NMP-2007-Large-1 call.
The Microflex project is concerned with flexible materials in the form of high added value smart fabrics/textiles which are able to sense stimuli and react or adapt to them in a predetermined way.
Microflex will exploit micro fabrication to produce, using custom printing process, active functions cost efficiently. We propose to develop fundamental micro fabrication production technologies for MEMS on fabrics/textiles using flagship demonstrator applications. This will result in a cheap, east to design, flexible, rapid way to manufacture multifunction smart textiles/garments for a large set of multi-sectorial applications.
Primary investigator
Secondary investigators
Partners
- Josef Stefan Institute
- Deutsche Institute fur Textil und Fasrforschung Denkendorf
- OVD Bonfort
- Klopman International
- Insensor
- Paul Boye Technologies
- University of Magdeburg
- Institut Francais du Textile et de l'Habillement
- Elasta
- Ardeje
- Saati
- Leitat
Associated research group
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Date:
- 2006-
- Theme:
- Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks
This project aims to develop a narrow-band RF-based Time-of-Flight (ToF) ranging method with sub-meter ranging resolution which can be adopted in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for the purpose of locationing sensor nodes. The use of RF will enable point-to-point ranging over larger distance (>50m) than current Ultra-wideband (UWB) based TOF systems with significantly less use of channel bandwidth.
Primary investigator
- bt05r
Secondary investigators
Associated research groups
- Electronic Systems and Devices Group
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Date:
- 2008-2012
- Themes:
- High Voltage Engineering, Solid dielectrics, Space and surface charge
- Funding:
- EPSRC
The lifetime of polymeric insulation is an area of particular interest due to the large and growing use of underground power cables. Breakdown of this insulation is a heavily researched area and this project aims to develop a better understanding of the aging and breakdown processes, with the use of space charge and electroluminescence data.
Current progress is looking at the Space charge and Electroluminescence phenomena of UV aged Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) films to identify changes in the oxidations effect on charge injection and trapping has on the Electroluminescence emission. (11-09-09)
Primary investigators
Secondary investigator
- dhm08r
Associated research groups
- Electrical Power Engineering
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Date:
- 2008-2009
- Themes:
- Assessment, ELearning, Platforms and Tools, Learning Technologies
- Funding:
- JISC
The project and the resulting report will focus on four areas: ââ¬Â¢ the theoretical underpinning for quality assurance of e assessment; ââ¬Â¢ current practice in Higher Education (HE) contexts both in the UK and overseas; ââ¬Â¢ current practice in professional, commercial, and industrial contexts; and ââ¬Â¢ recommendations for future practice in UK HE.
Theoretical underpinning will be provided by an overview of current psychometric and test theory as it applies to the quality assurance of conventional and e-assessments carried out in HE, FE, professional, and training contexts.
Current practice in HE will be characterised and analysed through a set of case studies across representative institutions and academic domains, guided by expert consultants from Southampton University, the University of Plymouth, and the Institute of Education.
Current practice in professional accreditation, commerce, and industry and its relation to HE and FE will be described, guided by consultancy from Questionmark, the leading vendor to UK HE, and Question Tools, a significant commercial vendor to organisations including the British Computer Society and Network Rail.
Finally, the report will detail recommendations for UK HE (and FE) arising from psychometric theory, the case studies, and commercial and professional practice.
Primary investigators
Secondary investigators
- Dr Bill Warburton, iSolutions
- Veronica Gale, independent consultant
- Greg Pope, Questionmark
- John Kleeman, Questionmark
- Paul Booth, Abas UK Ltd.
- Harvey Mellar, London Knowledge Lab
- Chris Ricketts, University of Plymouth
- Denise Whitelock, The Open University
Associated research groups
- Electronic and Software Systems
- Learning Societies Lab