Patents by Inventor Wei-Cheng Tian

Wei-Cheng Tian has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7101789
    Abstract: A method for forming smooth walled, prismatically-profiled through-wafer vias and articles formed through the method. An etch stop material is provided on a wafer, which may be a <110> silicon wafer. A mask material is provided on the etch stop material and patterned in such a way as to lead to the formation of vias that have at least one pair of opposing side walls that run parallel to a <111> plane in the wafer. A wet etchant, such as potassium hydroxide, is used to etch vias in the wafer. The use of a wet etchant leads to the formation of smooth side walls. This method allows an aspect ratio of height versus width of the vias of greater than 75 to 1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2006
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Kanakasabapathi Subramanian, Jeffrey Bernard Fortin, Wei-Cheng Tian
  • Publication number: 20060170014
    Abstract: A capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer (cMUT) cell is presented. The cMUT cell includes a lower electrode. Furthermore, the cMUT cell includes a diaphragm disposed adjacent to the lower electrode such that a gap having a first gap width is formed between the diaphragm and the lower electrode, wherein the diaphragm comprises one of a first epitaxial layer or a first polysilicon layer. In addition, a stress reducing material is disposed in the first epitaxial layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2006
    Publication date: August 3, 2006
    Inventors: Lowell Smith, David Mills, Jeffrey Fortin, Wei-Cheng Tian, John Logan
  • Publication number: 20060145059
    Abstract: A device comprising an array of sensors and a multiplicity of bus lines, each sensor being electrically connected to a respective bus line and comprising a respective multiplicity of groups of micromachined sensor cells, the sensor cell groups of a particular sensor being electrically coupled to each other via the bus line to which that sensor is connected, each sensor cell group comprising a respective multiplicity of micromachined sensor cells that are electrically interconnected to each other and not switchably disconnectable from each other, the device further comprising means for isolating any one of the sensor cell groups from its associated bus line and in response to any one of the micromachined sensor cells of that sensor cell group being short-circuited to ground. In one implementation, the isolating means comprise a multiplicity of fuses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2005
    Publication date: July 6, 2006
    Inventors: Warren Lee, David Mills, Glenn Claydon, Kenneth Rigby, Wei-Cheng Tian, Ye-Ming Li, Jie Sun, Lowell Smith, Stanley Chu, Sam Wong, Hyon-Jin Kwon
  • Publication number: 20060118920
    Abstract: A method for forming smooth walled, prismatically-profiled through-wafer vias and articles formed through the method. An etch stop material is provided on a wafer, which may be a <110> silicon wafer. A mask material is provided on the etch stop material and patterned in such a way as to lead to the formation of vias that have at least one pair of opposing side walls that run parallel to a <111> plane in the wafer. A wet etchant, such as potassium hydroxide, is used to etch vias in the wafer. The use of a wet etchant leads to the formation of smooth side walls. This method allows an aspect ratio of height versus width of the vias of greater than 75 to 1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2006
    Publication date: June 8, 2006
    Inventors: Kanakasabapathi Subramanian, Jeffrey Fortin, Wei-Cheng Tian
  • Patent number: 7037746
    Abstract: A capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer (cMUT) cell is presented. The cMUT cell includes a lower electrode. Furthermore, the cMUT cell includes a diaphragm disposed adjacent to the lower electrode such that a gap having a first gap width is formed between the diaphragm and the lower electrode, wherein the diaphragm comprises one of a first epitaxial layer or a first polysilicon layer. In addition, a stress reducing material is disposed in the first epitaxial layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2006
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Lowell Scott Smith, David Martin Mills, Jeffrey Bernard Fortin, Wei-Cheng Tian, John Robert Logan
  • Publication number: 20060055048
    Abstract: A method for forming smooth walled, prismatically-profiled through-wafer vias and articles formed through the method. An etch stop material is provided on a wafer, which may be a <110> silicon wafer. A mask material is provided on the etch stop material and patterned in such a way as to lead to the formation of vias that have at least one pair of opposing side walls that run parallel to a <111> plane in the wafer. A wet etchant, such as potassium hydroxide, is used to etch vias in the wafer. The use of a wet etchant leads to the formation of smooth side walls. This method allows an aspect ratio of height versus width of the vias of greater than 75 to 1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2004
    Publication date: March 16, 2006
    Inventors: Kanakasabapathi Subramanian, Jeffrey Fortin, Wei-Cheng Tian
  • Publication number: 20060004289
    Abstract: A capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer (cMUT) comprises a lower electrode. Furthermore, the cMUT includes a diaphragm disposed adjacent to the lower electrode such that a gap having a first gap width is formed between the diaphragm and the lower electrode. Additionally, the cMUT includes at least one element formed in the gap, where the at least one element is arranged to provide a second gap width between the diaphragm and the lower electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2004
    Publication date: January 5, 2006
    Inventors: Wei-Cheng Tian, Warren Lee, Lowell Smith, Ye-Ming Li, Jie Sun
  • Publication number: 20050270013
    Abstract: A micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) current sensor is described as including a first conductor, a magnetic field shaping component for shaping a magnetic field produced by a current in the first conductor, and a MEMS-based magnetic field sensing component including a magneto-MEMS component for sensing the shaped magnetic field and, in response thereto, providing an indication of the current in the first conductor. A method for sensing a current using MEMS is also described as including shaping a magnetic field produced with a current in a first conductor, sensing the shaped magnetic field with a MEMS-based magnetic field sensing component having a magneto-MEMS component magnetic field sensing circuit, and providing an indication of the current in the first conductor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2004
    Publication date: December 8, 2005
    Inventors: Ertugrul Berkcan, Christopher Kapusta, Glenn Claydon, Anis Zribi, Laura Meyer, Wei-Cheng Tian
  • Publication number: 20050270014
    Abstract: A micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) based current & magnetic field sensor includes a MEMS-based magnetic field sensing component having a capacitive magneto-MEMS component, a compensator and an output component for sensing magnetic fields and for providing, in response thereto, an indication of the current present in a respective conductor to be measured. In one embodiment, first and second mechanical sense components are electrically conductive and operate to sense a change in a capacitance between the mechanical sense components in response to a mechanical indicator from a magnetic-to-mechanical converter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2005
    Publication date: December 8, 2005
    Inventors: Anis Zribi, Glenn Claydon, Christopher Kapusta, Laura Meyer, Ertugrul Berkcan, Wei-Cheng Tian
  • Publication number: 20050262943
    Abstract: According to some embodiments, a Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) sensor includes a sensing material on a spring element. The sensor may also include a detector adapted to determine a resonant frequency associated with the spring element, wherein the resonant frequency changes upon the exposure of the sensing material to an analyte.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2004
    Publication date: December 1, 2005
    Inventors: Glenn Claydon, Stacey Goodwin, Anis Zribi, Wei-Cheng Tian, Aaron Knobloch, Walter Cicha, Patrick Malenfant
  • Patent number: 6914220
    Abstract: A microelectromechanical heating apparatus and fluid preconcentrator device utilizing same wherein heating elements of the apparatus are sized and spaced to substantially uniformly heat a heating chamber within a heater of the apparatus. Tall, thermally-isolated heating elements are fabricated in Si using high aspect ratio etching technology. These tall heating elements have large surface area to provide large adsorbent capacity needed for high efficiency preconcentrators in a micro gas chromatography system (?GC). The tall heating elements are surrounded by air gaps to provide good thermal isolation, which is important for a low power preconcentrator in the ?GC system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2005
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of Michigan
    Inventors: Wei-Cheng Tian, Stella W. Pang, Edward T. Zellers
  • Publication number: 20050109081
    Abstract: The invention provides a miniaturized sensor device including a thin film membrane having a first surface and a second surface, one or more resistive thin film heater/thermometer devices disposed directly or indirectly adjacent to the first surface of the thin film membrane, and a frame disposed directly or indirectly adjacent to the second surface of the thin film membrane, wherein one or more internal surfaces of the frame define at least one cell having at least one opening. The sensor device also includes a thin film layer disposed directly or indirectly adjacent to the frame. The sensor device further includes a sensing layer disposed directly or indirectly adjacent to the thin film membrane.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2003
    Publication date: May 26, 2005
    Inventors: Anis Zribi, Wei-Cheng Tian, Gerald Schultz, Aaron Knobloch
  • Publication number: 20040056016
    Abstract: A microelectromechanical heating apparatus and fluid preconcentrator device utilizing same wherein heating elements of the apparatus are sized and spaced to substantially uniformly heat a heating chamber within a heater of the apparatus. Tall, thermally-isolated heating elements are fabricated in Si using high aspect ratio etching technology. These tall heating elements have large surface area to provide large adsorbent capacity needed for high efficiency preconcentrators in a micro gas chromatography system (&mgr;GC). The tall heating elements are surrounded by air gaps to provide good thermal isolation, which is important for a low power preconcentrator in the &mgr;GC system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2003
    Publication date: March 25, 2004
    Applicant: The Regents of the University of Michigan
    Inventors: Wei-Cheng Tian, Stella W. Pang, Edward T. Zellers