Seminar: Unconventional Thin Structures: From Stiff, Imperfection-Insensitive Shells to Soft, Flexible Electronics

Xin Ning, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

All dates for this event occur in the past.

E100 Scott Laboratory
E100 Scott Laboratory
201 W. 19th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
United States

Abstract

Thin structures are key structural components in many engineering applications, ranging from large-scale aircraft and spacecraft, deployable disaster-relief tents and deep-sea vehicles, to microscale devices such as microelectromechanical systems and bio-integrated electronics. Creating unusual, unprecedented lightweight and multifunctional thin structures is one of the crucial thrusts necessary for advancing human exploration of the strange new worlds in space and on earth, and solving grand societal challenges such as transportation, energy, and human well-being.

This talk will focus on two distinct classes of unconventional thin structures: stiff, lightweight shells that are not sensitive to manufacturing imperfections, and soft, flexible electronics that extend the frontier of traditional MEMS and bioelectronics. The buckling and extreme imperfection-sensitivity of thin shells are classical and challenging problems that have hampered the design of lightweight thin shells. A novel methodology that totally eliminates the imperfection-sensitivity and produces highly efficient thin shells against buckling will be presented. Then a breakthrough manufacturing technology that exploits structural buckling to create flexible 3D microscale devices from advanced electronic materials such as device-grade single-crystal silicon and thin-film PZT will be discussed. Finally the presentation will include discussion of a flexible ultrathin needle-shaped piezoelectric microsystem for targeting cancer tissues.

 

About the speaker

Xin Ning is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working on novel flexible and stretchable electronics with Professor John A. Rogers. He received his PhD in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 2015 under the guidance of Professor Sergio Pellegrino, where he developed a novel methodology for creating lightweight, imperfection-insensitive thin shells. Ning received his master's degree in aeronautics from Caltech in 2010, where he was also a Dow-Resnick Fellow in the Resnick Sustainability Institute. He received his bachelor of engineering in aircraft design and engineering from Beihang University in China in 2009.

Hosted by Prof. Soheil Sohgrati.