Sandip Tiwari’s interests span from the underlying science of nanoscale devices and structures to applications of these devices in circuits and systems. He is developing new experimental approaches to create the devices and structures, study them through electronic and optical techniques, theoretically analyze them through modeling tools and development of new algorithms, and apply these in working demonstrations. One of the new developments from his students’ efforts includes the smallest nanoscale electronic memory structure that simultaneously works as a transistor. It utilizes a new device structure with a high density of defects incorporated underneath a layer of single crystal silicon that’s only a few atoms thick. Other developments include new techniques for integrating silicon transistor technology in multiple planes on a single chip, architectures that address the problems of continuing integration needs of information processing through three-dimensional integration, configurable power-adaptive computing, and compact mixed-signal circuits and systems. A member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty, Tiwari serves as the director of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network.

Professor Amit Lal in Electrical and Computer Engineering, director of the SonicMEMS Group at Cornell, leads the development of various micro-scale and nanoscale devices, integrated microsystems using MEMS fabrication techniques.

His new power source for integrated microsystems is a millimeter-sized battery that draws energy from a radioactive isotope and could supply power for several decades. It could find application in implantable medical devices, remote sensors, and other devices where a long-lived battery is desirable. The research team has plans to scale the prototype to even smaller dimensions.

His ultrasonic microfluidic system is a transducer array for liquid manipulation that includes a micropump made by bulk piezoelectric actuation of silicon-nitride membranes.

The group’s integrated ultrasonic surgical tool sculpts tissue with a high degree of accuracy without the side effects of conventional cutting tools. The new tool could include a sensor to identify tissue type by density.

Other areas of his research include MEMSbased sensors designed to be inserted into the body to transmit information to a receiving unit outside the patient, improving the methods for manufacturing nanotubes using ultrasound and MEMS technology, and experimenting with a highly sensitive piezoelectric sensor to replicate the way mosquitoes use vibratory cutting to pierce the skin.