Style:
Teamwork; Collective

To pass, you must: (i) attend all the class lectures, (ii) participate during the experimental/simulation sessions, and (iii) submit the project(s) at the end of course. By the end of Class #1, students must decide whether to register or drop the course.

Overview: This is a special topic on piezoelectric materials and devices, which have become a leading source of functional and intelligent electronics in a vast array of applications, from personal healthcare to industrial equipment. The instructor anticipates that this unique course will shed light on the present state of research and development within the community of piezoelectric materials and ultrasound devices for biomedical applications. It begins with a comprehensive summary of the history of piezoelectrics and current hot research topics. Second, it covers all aspects of the materials starting from fundamental concepts, including the theory of piezoelectricity, and the physics of piezoelectric materials and their characteristics. Third, it demonstrates advanced electronic devices, including sensors, actuators, harvesters, and transducers. Fourth, it will cover cutting-edge applications of piezoelectric ultrasound for medical imaging, energy transfer, and neurostimulations. Last but not least, students will be trained on modelling ultrasonic propagation to design medical devices using different simulation software like COMSOL and PiezoCAD. In the meantime, students will obtain practical expertise in synthesizing and characterizing piezoelectric materials and manufacturing and measuring piezoelectric devices for engineering and biomedical applications. On the course website, course-related books/articles/notes/video tutorials are provided. The final projects are to submit digital drawings (2D/3D) and their corresponding simulation results of the proposed piezoelectric medical devices based on the interest of the students.

Cleanroom (YellowBox) open hours will be held on Tuesdays from 10am-12pm.

Objectives:

1. To gain knowledge from experts in the piezoelectric and ultrasound research field,
2. To understand the impact of microfabricated devices on society,
3. To encourage participation in class by the asking of questions,
4. To experience the piezoelectric materials/devices fabrication and characterization
5. To draw and simulate the performance of different piezoelectric ultrasound based medical devices
6. To write a scientific report on the research findings and experiments as a team

Schedule (Lecture sessions: ≥3 hrs/class; Experimental/Simulation sessions: ≥3 hrs/class)