MII Fabrication
Our current inductor design at 20x magnification.
We are presently developing a simple hardware demonstration of the MII bus in Cornell University’s Nanoscale Facility. Our most recent efforts have focused on the RLC oscillator. Having achieved our target 10 nF/cm2 capacitance density using silicon dioxide as a dielectric layer, we are fabricating a series of inductors based on a three-layer octagonal design by Craninckx.
Concurrently, members of our group are exploring the challenges associated with solar-cell integration and beginning fabrication. Once the test chip is fabricated, we will begin thermal vacuum chamber and sun simulator testing.
Alfred Ernst and Justin Atchison in the Cornell Nanoscale Facility, August 2007. Justin is holding a silicon wafer printed with MII prototypes.
For more information, see:
- Atchison and Peck, "A Passive Microscale Solar Sail"
- Atchison and Peck, "A Millimeter-Scale Lorentz-Propelled Spacecraft"
Team Members
- Justin Atchison
Undergraduates
- Alfred Ernst
- Zac Manchester
- Phillipe Tosi