R&D Engineer in Micro/Nano-engineering

Objective

A permanent R&D engineer position in outstanding high tech company utilizing my extensive scientific research background and laboratory experience in MEMS/BioMEMS.

Skills

Design, development & hands-on testing of MEMS/BioMEMS with 4-year class 100 clean room experience; Semiconductor micro-fabrication; Multiphysical modeling (stress tolerance and heat transfer) and behavior level simulation; Optical thin film development and characterization for uncooled infrared sensing, vascular smooth muscle cell culture.

Summary

My scientific research work during Ph.D. study has provided me with plenty of experience in design, fabrication, optimization and hands-on testing/characterization of micro-post array force sensor, micro-mirror, micro-probe and MEMS power harvesting device; Si and Ge microfabrication; optical thin film development and characterization; surface physics and mechanics for proteins, DNA, and vascular smooth muscle cells.

My research experiences ramp-ups from electrical engineering to life science make me competent for high-tech progress and success. They also help me increase the proficiency of thinking and possess the ability to handle two or more projects in parallel.

My future of post Ph.D study depends on a bigger ‘blueprint’. After developing strong ability in microfabrication and extensive experience in semiconductor thin film testing/characterization, I am looking forward to working with microsystem researchers where I can reinforce their competence in research through IR sensing technology, microarray, micromirror or other relevant MEMS/BioMEMS devices as a part of technology revolution.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Electrical Engineering 2010

University of Missouri, Columbia. GPA: 4.0.

- Courses: Microelectronic Fabrication, Advanced MEMS, MEMS Laboratory, Introduction to BioMEMS, Bioelectrics, Semiconductor Device Theory, and Optical Electronics.

- Teaching assistant for Fall 2007.

- Leaded two Ph.D. students, 2 master students and 2 undergraduate students in different projects.

M.S., Electrical Engineering 2006

The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. GPA: 3.65.

- Courses: Embedded System Design, ASIC Architecture, VHDL, VLSI, RF Electronics and Electronic Device Packaging.

M.S., Electrical Engineering 2003

Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China. GPA: 3.44.

- Course: Digital Signal Processing, Data Fusion Theory, Accurate Measurement Technique and Sensor Theory.

B.S., Electrical Engineering 2000

Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China. GPA: 3.56.

Research and Development Experience in Electrical Engineering

Graduate Researcher 2006 to Present

University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Key research group member leaded the fabrication and characterization of SiGeO thin film

for uncooled-infrared microbolometer. Completed complex assignments utilizing magnetron sputtering, EDS, step profiler, ellipsometor, Four Point Probe, DMM, spectrum analyzer, FTIR, and Lab View to analyze and improve thin film property for night vision applications

• Deposited SiGeO thin film at room temperature and 400°C utilizing AJA ATC 2000 RF magnetron sputtering system and perform measurement of thickness, uniformity and elements concentration.

• Developed measurement setup and performed resistance, Temperature Coefficient of Resistance (TCR) and noise test of SiGeO thin film on Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) to support findings and make recommendations for improvements on current and future technological changes.

• Conducted statistic analysis on measurement data using excel, matlab and origin to find electrical and optical property trend of SiGeO thin films under different deposition conditions. The temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of SiGeO thin film was improved from -3%/K to more than -6%/K and the resistivity was reduced from 104Ω∙cm to 102Ω∙cm.

Graduate Researcher 2007 to Present

University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Conducted research and development on a novel BioMEMS device towards understand the dynamics of cellular interactions to extracellular matrix. In charge of design, modeling, fabrication and characterization of micromachined array of PDMS microposts for measuring cellular traction force

• Developed steps to fabricate array of high aspect ratio PDMS micropost utilizing photolithography, vacuum oven, Reactive Ion Etching (RIE), Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The height to diameter aspect ratio of the micropost was increased from 2 to more than 13.

• Performed mechanical characterization of PDMS micropost by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Implemented statistic data analysis on measurement results to characterize spring constant of micropost and determine its Young's Modulus.

• Completed successfully cell experiment using micropost array to measure cell traction forces. Developed program in matalb to process optical white-field images and determine the amount and direction of traction force. The minimum detected force was 0.7nN and the lowest spring constant of the micropost was 0.2nN/µm. Conducted biological experiment using micropost array and identified specific protein of controlling proliferation and migration of VSM cell.

Work Experience in Electrical Engineering

Intern 2005 to 2006

Kungsback IT-Centrum, Gavle, Sweden

Team member involved in development and field test of wireless broadcasting system (DVB-RCT) utilizing Java, FTP/ICP protocol, spectrum analyzer, media server and 802.11b/g wireless router

• Performed field test of SNR of OFDM broadcasting system by spectrum analyzer.

• Designed and implemented bi-direction testing client platform by Perl for evaluating transmission quality in different communication scenarios, different PHY and MAC configuration.

• Evaluated and compared WiMAX with DVB-RCT as WBA candidates.

Software Engineer 2003 to 2004

Play Company, Nanjing, China

Participated in developing internet based media broadcasting software for VOD system

• Designed the scheduling subsystem, the downloading subsystem using API of Windows

OS and Delphi.

• Designed the publishing subsystem using ASP and PowerBuilder. Performed filed test of communication quality between broadcasting server and VOD costumer.

•Upgraded the system to compatible with real helix media server, conducted maintenance at customer endpoint periodically and performed enhancements to software and eliminated software bugs.

Skills (details)

• Equipment (Installation, operation or maintenance): Alcatel Adixon AMS 100 DRIE, AJA ATC 2000 Sputtering System, MA3 and MA5 Karl-Suss Mask Aligner, Oxford 80 Plus RIE, SEKI AX6550 Microwave Plasma CVD System, Plasma Asher, Veeco NanoMan and Scanning Probe Microscope (AFM), Quanta 600F ESEM and many others.

• Programming Language: C, C++, assembly language, Perl, Delphi and PowerBuilder.

• MEMS design and simulation software: L-Edit, AutoCAD, Coventorware and SolidEdge.

• ASIC design software: VHDL, ModelSim, PSpice and Microwind.

• Scientific research software: Matlab, Excel and Origin.

• Automatic Test Equipment and software: Labview, DMM, Spectrum Analyzer, temperature controller.

Publications

• Q. Cheng, M. Hai, T. Bui, M. Almasri, “Silicon Germanuim Oxide (SixGe1-xOy) Infrared Sensitive Material for Uncooled Detectors”, MicroTech 2010

• Q. Cheng, M. Hai, Truc Bui, K. Upendram and M. Almasri, “Silicon Germanuim Oxide (SixGe1-xOy) for Uncooled Infrared Microbolometer”, MRS Spring Meeting, 2010

• Q. Cheng and M. Almasri, “Silicon germanium oxide (SixGe1-xOy) infrared material for uncooled infrared detection”, Proc. SPIE. April 2009, Vol. 7298, 72980K

• Q. Cheng and M. Almasri, "Characterization of radio frequency sputtered SixGe1-xOy thin films for uncooled micro-bolometer", Proc. SPIE. April 2008, Vol. 6940, 694011

• K. Tondapu, Q. Cheng, and M. Almasri "One-axis metallic electrostatic micromirror array", Proc. SPIE. January 2008, Vol. 6887, 68870I

• Q. Cheng, S. Paradis, T. Bui, M. Almasri, "Dual-Band Uncooled Infrared Micro-bolometer", IEEE Sensors Journal. February 2010, Accepted

• Q. Cheng, Z. Sun, G.A. Meininger, M. Almasri, "Micromachined PDMS Elastic Post Arrays for Studying Traction forces of by Vascular smooth Muscle Cells", IEEE JMEMS. December 2009, Submitted

Affiliations

• Student Member - SPIE, 2008 - present

• Student Member - IEEE, 2009 - present

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