Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Robotics
412-268-4241
412-268-3890 (fax)
PH B29
Secretary:
Debbie Scappatura
debbie@ece.cmu.edu
412-268-2432
Design, fabrication, characterization, and application of microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) components and arrays.
B.S. 1977, University of Pittsburgh; M.S. 1979 and Sc.D. 1983, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Carnegie Mellon,
1997-
Kaigham J. Gabriel
As information systems increasingly leave fixed locations and
appear in our pockets and palms, they are getting closer to the
physical world, creating new opportunities for perceiving and
controlling our machines, structures, and environments. To exploit
these opportunities, information systems will need to sense and
act as well as compute. Investing engineered microsystems with
the ability to sense and act is the central focus of Professor
Gabriel’s research interests.
Using the materials and processes of semiconductor fabrication, microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) enable the batch fabrication of miniature and integrated electrical and mechanical components. Professor Gabriel is particularly interested in the design and fabrication of MEMS devices with hundreds to millions of electromechanical parts integrated with electronics to create arrays with a systems function greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Professor Gabriel’s current application areas of interest include biomedical and analytical instruments, human-machine interfaces, data storage systems, and optical/radio-frequency switching and signal processing. In each of these areas, his research group is exploring radically new device and systems designs that exploit the miniaturization, multiplicity, and microelectronics of MEMS.
Representative Publications
A. Berlin and K.J. Gabriel, “Distributed MEMS: New Challenges
for Computation,” IEEE Computational Science and Engineering Journal, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 12-16, 1997.
K.J. Gabriel, “Engineering Microscopic Machines,” 150th Anniversary Issue, Scientific American: Technology in the 21st Century, vol. 273, no. 3, pp. 150-153, September 1995.
K.J. Gabriel, O. Tabata, and S. Sugiyama, “Surface-Normal Electrostatic Pneumatic Actuators,” Technical Proceedings of MEMS ’92, Travemunde, Germany, pp. 110-114, February 1992.
M. Mehregany, K.J. Gabriel, and W.S. Trimmer, “Integrated Fabrication of Polysilicon Mechanisms,” IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 719-723, 1988.