Katsuo Kurabayashi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
2272 G.G. Brown Lab
Voice: (734) 615-5211
Fax: (734) 647-3170
Contents
Research
Interests
-Micoelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)
-Nanoengineering
-Thermal Energy Transport Phenomena in Electronic Systems
-Micro Optical Devices
-MEMS/Biomolecular Hybrid Technology
Education
B.S. in
Precision Engineering, University of Tokyo, 1992
M.S. in
Materials Science (Physics of Solids), Stanford University, 1994
Ph.D. in
Materials Science with Electrical Engineering minor, Stanford University,
1998
Professional Experiences
Associate Professor,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University
of Michigan, 2006 - present
Associate Professor, Department
of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, University
of Michigan, 2006 - present
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, University of Michigan, 2000 - 2006
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical
Engineering & Computer Science, University of Michigan, 2004 - 2006
Research Associate,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 1999-2000
Initiated
collaboration with
Summer
Intern, Components Research, Intel
Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, June 1997-Sept. 1997
Developed
an experimental technique for measuring thermal conductivities of novel
dielectric layers and thermal resistance at metal/dielectric interfaces as a
technology transfer from academia to industry. The measured thermal parameters
are being used in thermal simulations of the next-generation intel
microprocessors.
Research
Assistant, MTMC Lab and Stanford Solid
State Electronics Lab, Stanford University, 1994-1998
Managed
proposal writing, reporting, and company site visits for Semiconductor Research
Corporation (SRC) contract 357 (packaging sciences). The contract supported the
dissertation research on the thermal transport properties of polymer films, and
was chosen by the member companies as a 1998 compelling reason for joining the SRC.
Honors and Awards
Semiconductor Research
Corporation (SRC) Best Paper Award, TECHCON '98, September 1998
International VLSI Multilevel
Interconnection Conference Outstanding Paper Award, October 1998
National Science Foundation
CAREER Award 2001-2005
University of Michigan Robert
Caddell Memorial Award 2004-2005
Co-author of SPIE Best Student
Paper Award, Optics East 2004 (with Yi-Chung Tung), October 2004
Biographical Information
Dr. Kurabayashi received his B.S. degree in Precision Engineering
at the University of Tokyo in 1992 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials
Science and Engineering with Electrical Engineering Minor from Stanford
University, in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Upon completion of his Ph.D.
program, he was hired as a Physical Science Research Associate with the
Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University and participated, for
a year, in a DARPA funded project aiming to develop MEMS-based microfluidic
technology for future IC cooling. Since 2000, he has been an Assistant
Professor with the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of
Michigan, investigating novel actuator and micro-mechanism designs for MEMS,
multi-physics domain analysis of RF MEMS, nano-scale thermal energy transport
in electronic devices and MEMS structures, and polymer-based microfabrication.
He authored and co-authored more than 40 journal and conference papers, two of
which received a best paper award (Semiconductor Research Corporation Best
Paper Award in 1998, and International VLSI Multilevel Interconnection
Conference Outstanding Paper Award in 1998). He is a recipient of the 2001
National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Faculty Career Development (CAREER)
Award for his contribution to a study of thermal energy transport in
micromachined polysilicon structures at high temperatures. Dr. Kurabayashi has given seminars as an
invited speaker at industrial laboratories, such as Xerox Palo Alto Research
Center and Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories between 1999 and 2001 and
serves as member of the NSF panel committee for Nanoscale Exploratory Research
(NER) Program in 2001.
At the University of Michigan, Dr.
Kurabayashi has developed a graduate-level course on MEMS. This course covers
highly interdisciplinary teaching materials such as semiconductor physics,
micromachining, transducer fundamentals, thin-film mechanics, and heat
transfer, which are all necessary for designing the modern MEMS-based sensors
and actuators. Students from a variety of graduate programs, including
Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil
Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical
Engineering, and Physics, take this course and are asked to make a team effort
to propose a new MEMS design using the knowledge obtained through the course.
The course project has resulted in two publications and one provisional U.S.
patent since the course started in winter, 2000. He has also developed a
research laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department, Micro Systems
Technology and Science Lab (MSTS Lab), which is currently available full-time
for dynamic, thermal, and electrical design and characterization of MEMS and
electronic devices.
Research Projects
Strain-Tunable
Nanophtonic Devices (NSF)
Integrated
Electromagnetic/Thermal/Mechanical Analysis for RF MEMS (NSF)
Low-volume,
Low-power, Low-cost Wireless Microsystems (Department of Central Intelligence)
Biomolecular Motor Nanotechnology
(DARPA)
Near-Field Optics Laser Nanomachining
(NSF)
MEMS Thermal Modulator for 2D micro-GC
(NASA)
Passive MEMS Preconcentrator for
micor-GC (NSF)
Real-Time Confocal Imaging for In Vivo
Histopathology (MICHR and NIH)
Chip-Based Continuous Atom Lasers (Department of Central
Intelligence)
Selected
Publications
Archival Journals
- C.T. Lin, M.T. Kao,
E. Meyhofer, and K. Kurabayashi: Surface Landing of Microtubule Nanotracks Influenced
by Lithographically Patterned Channels, 2009, Appl. Phys. Lett., 95, No. 103701.
- S.J. Kim, F. Wang, M.A. Burns, and K.
Kurabayashi: Temperature-Programmed Natural
Convection for Micromixing and Biochemical Reaction in a Single Microfluidic Chamber, 2009, Analytical Chemistry,
81, 4510-4516.
-
S.C. Truxal, Y.-C. Tung,
and K. Kurabayashi: High-Speed Deformation Soft Lithographic Nano
Grating Patterns for Ultrasensitive Optical Spectroscopy, 2008, Appl.
Phys. Lett., 92,
No. 05116.
- S.C. Truxal, Y.C. Tung,
and K. Kurabayashi: A flexible nanograting integrated onto silicon micromachines by
soft lithographic replica molding and assembly, 2008, J. Microelectromechanical Systems,
17, 393- 401.
- C.Y. Fan, Y.-C. Tung, S. Takayama,
E. Meyhofer, and K. Kurabayashi: Electrically Programmable Surfaces for Configurable
Patterning of Cells, 2008, Advanced Materials 20,
1418-1423.
- C.-T. Lin, M.-T. Kao, K. Kurabayashi, and E.
Meyhofer: Self-contained
biomolecular motor-driven protein sorting and concentrating in an
ultrasensitive microfluidic chip, 2008, Nano Lett., 8, pp. 1041-1046.
- L.L.W. Chow, K. Saitou,
J.L.
Volakis, and K. Kurabayashi: Lifetime Extension of RF MEMS Direct Contact Switches by
Ball-Grid-Array (BGA) Dimple Design, 2007, IEEE
Electron Device Lett. 28,
479-481.
- Fan, C.Y., Kurabayashi, K., and Meyhofer, E.: Protein
Pattern Assembly by Actively Controlling a Triblock Copolymer Monolayer, 2006, Nano Lett., 6, 2763-2767.
- B.D. Jensen, L.L.-W. Chow,
K. Huang, K. Saitou, J.L. Volakis, and K. Kurabayashi: Effect of Nanoscale Heating on Electrical
Transport in RF MEMS Switch Contacts, 2005, J. Microelectromechanical
Systems, 14,
935- 946.
- Y.-C. Tung and K. Kurabayashi: Nanoimprinted Strain-Controlled Elastomeric Gratings for
Optical Wavelength Tuning, 2005, Appl. Phys. Lett., 86, No.
161113.
Last
revised: Date