Publications by Matthias Imboden

Modal engineering of electromagnetic circuits to achieve rapid settling times

Inductive circuits and devices are ubiquitous and important design elements in many applications, such as magnetic drives, galvanometers, magnetic scanners, applying direct current (DC) magnetic fields to systems, radio frequency coils in nuclear magnetic ...

AIP Publishing2023

The Integration of Optical Stimulation in a Mechanically Dynamic Cell Culture Substrate

Herbert Shea, Olexandr Gudozhnik, Matthias Imboden

A cell culture well with integrated mechanical and optical stimulation is presented. This is achieved by combining dielectric elastomer soft actuators, also known as artificial muscles, and a varifocal micro-electromechanical mirror that couples light from ...

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA2022

Open loop control theory algorithms for high-speed 3D MEMS optical switches

Matthias Imboden

There is a world-wide push to create the next-generation all-optical transmission and switching technologies for exascale data centers. In this paper we focus on the switching fabrics. Many different types of 2D architectures are being explored including M ...

2020

High-speed mechano-active multielectrode array for investigating rapid stretch effects on cardiac tissue

Samuel Rosset, Herbert Shea, Alexandre Poulin, Christian Dellenbach, Matthias Imboden, Etienne de Coulon, Stephan Rohr

Systematic investigations of the effects of mechano-electric coupling (MEC) on cellular cardiac electrophysiology lack experimental systems suitable to subject tissues to in-vivo like strain patterns while simultaneously reporting changes in electrical act ...

Nature Research2019

Building a Casimir metrology platform with a commercial MEMS sensor

Matthias Imboden

The Casimir Effect is a physical manifestation of quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum. When two metal plates are placed close together, typically much less than a micron, the long wavelength modes between them are frozen out, giving rise to ...

Springer2019

An autonomous untethered fast soft robotic insect driven by low-voltage dielectric elastomer actuators

Yves Perriard, Herbert Shea, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Xinchang Liu, Matthias Imboden, Xiaobin Ji, Vito Cacucciolo, Xinru Ji

Insects are a constant source of inspiration for roboticists. Their compliant bodies allow them to squeeze through small openings and be highly resilient to impacts. However, making subgram autonomous soft robots untethered and capable of responding intell ...

2019

A Large Range of Motion 3D MEMS Scanner With Five Degrees of Freedom

Matthias Imboden

Here, we discuss a novel, mixed mode 3D XYZ scanner built within a single foundry process. The device has a large range of motion in X, Y, and Z (14.1 mu m in X and Y and 97.9 mu m in Z) and can also rotate about two axes (7.4 degrees), making it a 5 degre ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2019

An ultra-fast mechanically active cell culture substrate

Samuel Rosset, Herbert Shea, Alexandre Poulin, Cristina Martin Olmos, Francesca Sorba, Matthias Imboden

We present a mechanically active cell culture substrate that produces complex strain patterns and generates extremely high strain rates. The transparent miniaturized cell stretcher is compatible with live cell microscopy and provides a very compact and por ...

Nature Research2018

Engineered PWM Drives for Achieving Rapid Step and Settle Times for MEMS Actuation

Matthias Imboden

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2018

Single ended capacitive self-sensing system for comb drives driven XY nanopositioners

Matthias Imboden

2018

High Performance, Continuously Tunable Microwave Filters Using MEMS Devices With Very Large, Controlled, Out-of-Plane Actuation

Matthias Imboden

Software defined radios (SDR) in the microwave X- and K-bands offer the promise of low cost, programmable operation with real-time frequency agility. However, the real world in which such radios operate requires them to be able to detect nanowatt signals i ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2018

Tuning the resonance frequencies and mode shapes in a large range multi-degree of freedom micromirror

Matthias Imboden

The ability to actively shift the primary resonance of a 2D scanning micromirror allows the user to set the scanning direction, set the scanning frequency, and lift otherwise degenerate modes in a symmetrically designed system. In most cases, resonant scan ...

Optical Soc Amer2017

Beam shaping with tip-tilt varifocal mirror for indoor optical wireless communication

Matthias Imboden

MEMS mirrors are currently used in many applications to steer beams of light. An area of continued research is developing mirrors with varifocal capability that allows the beam to be shaped and focused. In this work, we study the varifocal capability of a ...

Optical Society of America2017

Cryogenic Fab-on-a-Chip Sticks the Landing

Matthias Imboden, Han Han

Using a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based Fab-on-a-Chip, we quench-condense lead thin-films. Suppressing the formation of lead islands makes it possible to grow a homogeneous and continuous film as thin as 2 nm, without the use of an adhesion lay ...

Amer Chemical Soc2017

Comb Drive Designs With Minimized Levitation

Matthias Imboden

This paper presents two capacitive comb drive designs for electrostatic actuation of MEMS with the aim to eliminate the levitation effect often observed in such systems. By placing a shield over the comb drive fingers, it is possible to balance the electri ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2016

Directional visible light communication signal enhancement using a varifocal micromirror with four degrees of freedom

Matthias Imboden

We present the use of a micromirror to dynamically improve an optical wireless communiciations link. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is improved by directing the output of a 675 nm laser diode modulated at 10 MHz toward a receiver and by varying the diverg ...

Spie-Int Soc Optical Engineering2016

Optimization of thin-film highly-compliant elastomer sensors for contractility measurement of muscle cells

Samuel Rosset, Mélanie Favre, Herbert Shea, Alexandre Poulin, Cristina Martin Olmos, Oluwaseun Adelowo Araromi, Francesca Sorba, Matthias Imboden

Test assays capable of providing quantitative characterization of the contraction of cardiac and smooth muscle cells are of great need for drug development and screening. Several methodologies have been proposed for achieving measurement of cell contractil ...

Elsevier Science Bv2016

High-Speed Control of Electromechanical Transduction ADVANCED DRIVE TECHNIQUES FOR OPTIMIZED STEP-AND-SETTLE RESPONSE OF MEMS MICROMIRRORS

Matthias Imboden

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2016