Air Force Institute of Technology

Contact Force Models, including Electric Contact Deformation, for Electrostatically Actuated, Cantilever-Style, RF MEMS Switches

Coutu_Jr. R.A., Kladitis P.E., Air Force Institute of Technology, US

Electrostatically actuated, cantilever-style, metal contact, radio frequency (RF), microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches depend on having adequate contact force to achieve desired, low contact resistance. In this study, contact force equations that account for beam tip [...]

Competitive Template Analysis of the Fast Messy Genetic Algorithm When Applied to the Protein Structure Prediction Problem

Day R.O., Zydallis J.B., Lamont G.B., Air Force Institute of Technology, US

The Protein Structure Prediction (PSP) problem is a Grand Challenge problem among biochemists, computer scientists and engineers alike. Solving this problem involves correctly predicting the geometrical conformation of a fully folded protein. This paper focuses [...]

Solving the Protein Structure Prediction Problem Through a Multiobjective Genetic Algorithm

Day R.O., Zydallis J.B., Lamont G.B., Pachter R., Air Force Institute of Technology, US

The Protein Structure Prediction (PSP) problem is a Grand Challenge problem among biochemists, computer scientists and engineers alike. Solving this problem involves correctly predicting the geometrical conformation of a fully folded protein. This paper focuses [...]

Residual Stress Characterization in MEMS Microbridges using Micro-Raman Spectroscopy

Starman_Jr. L.A., Ochoa E.M., Lott J.A., Amer M.S., Cowan W.D., Busbee J.D., Air Force Institute of Technology, US

We characterize and measure the pre-released residual stress levels in polysilicon Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) microbridges using micro-Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy is nondestructive, fast, and provides the potential for in situ stress monitoring during fabrication. Residual [...]

Polysilicon Prototypes for Flip-bonded Hybrid MEM-tunable Filters and VCSELs

Ochoa E.M., Starman_Jr. L.A., Cowan W.D., Nelson_Jr. T.R., Blum Spahn O., Lott J.A., Air Force Institute of Technology, US

We characterize our novel mechanical structures for flip-bonded hybrid micro-electro-mechanically (MEM) tunable filters (MEM-TF) and MEM-tunable vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (MEM-TVCSELs) by comparing simulations with foundry fabricated actuators. Two of our prototypes, each with [...]

Detecting Secondary Peptide Structures by Scaling a Genetic Algorithm

Michaud S.R., Zydallis J.B., Lamont G.B., Pachter R., Air Force Institute of Technology, US

The ability to accurately predict a polypeptide's molecular structure given its amino acid sequence is important to numerous scientific, medical, and engineering applications. Studies have been conducted in the application of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to [...]