Mr. Yang presented his work at SRC Techcon 2010, held September 13-14 in Austin, Tex. and did a podcast on this work with his coauthor and Ph.D. advisor, Muhannad Bakir, an associate professor in ECE. Listen to the podcast.

Two key technologies that enable 3D integration of CMOS integrated circuits (IC) and MEMS are Mechanically Flexible Interconnects (MFIs) and Through-Silicon Vias. MFIs allow stress-free interconnections between chips, so that the MEMS device does not change behavior or experience performance degradation due to chip warpage. Through-Silicon Via (TSV), on the other hand, lets sensors face away from the CMOS IC, thereby allowing it to be exposed to various target materials. As a collective, these two interconnect technologies enable integration of an arbitrary MEMS technology with a state-of-the-art CMOS IC.