News and Events

Genoa Science Festival 2019

We organized the open laboratory “Movements at the Microscale – inside the world of microelectromechanical devices” scheduled in Genoa (Palazzo Ducale, Munizioniere) from October 24th to November 4th 2019, as an event of The Genoa Science Festival.

Attendees will be guided by the Science Explainers of the Festival through the world of microelectromechanical systems, microactuating technologies and related materials, such as shape memory alloys, piezoelectrics and phase-transition materials. Scientific discussions on cutting-edge technological applications will be made in front of suited demonstrators.

This event is organized in collaboration with CNR-IMEM, CNR- Communication office, Phi Drive, Politecnico di Milano, SAES Getters and STMicroelectronics.

 

 

The 2nd Workshop on Microactuators will take place in Osaka on 4th October 2019.

Scope of this international workshop is to promote discussions in the fields of microactuators, MEMS/NEMS, flexible devices and related materials.

Information on the workshop program and how to attend the event can be found on the workshop poster.

 

 

The Workshop successfully took place !

The organizers acknowledge the speakers for their great talks and all the participants for their attendance and for their questions and comments during the whole event.

45 people attended the conference with the distribution reported below.

 


Picture of the invited speakers 

Top line (from left): Stefano Franceschinis (SAES Getters), Irene Fassi (STIIMA-CNR), Arianna Menciassi (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna), Franca Albertini (IMEM-CNR), Silvia Taccola (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia), Aurelio Somà (Politecnico di Torino), Alberto Corigliano (Politecnico Milano), Hidekazu Tanaka (ISIR-Osaka Univ.), Luca Zanotti (STMicroelectronics).

Bottom line (from left): Teruo Kanki (ISIR-Osaka Univ.), Flavia Buonanno (Phi Drive S.r.l.), Luca Pellegrino (CNR-SPIN), Fabio Quaranta (IMM-CNR), Nicola Manca (Università di Genova).

Workshop on Microactuators will be held the 8th of October at the Physics Department of the University of Genoa.

See the Workshop website for details !!!

 


 

  Nicola Manca and Daniele Marré visited the ISIR laboratories and performed research activities with the group members, obtaining a big step forward in the project activities..…to be continued!

 

 

 

  Nicola Manca gave an oral presentation at The 15th International Workshop on Nanomechanical Sensing NMC 2018, June 26 - June 29, 2018 at Songdo Convensia, Incheon, South Korea. The title of his presentation was "A high-frequency mechanical actuation scheme based on the solid phase transition of VO2"

 

 

  Luca Pellegrino attended the Actuator 2018 conference, 16th International Conference on New Actuators & 10th Exhibition on Smart Actuators and Drive Systems, in Bremen from 25 to 27 June and gave a talk on "VO2: a material for high-performance micro/nanoactuators"

Download the proceeding of the conference (submitted version) >

 

 

 

Marco Ferretti, Master student at the University of Genova, joined the group.

We all wish him all the best for his new activity !!!

 

 

  Prof. Teruo Kanki visited the group of Prof. Daniele Marré at the Physics Department of the University of Genova and had scientific discussions with lab members. A joint session of measurements on the developed mechanical detection system on VO2 microstructures has been performed.

 


 

During the celebration of the “Italian Research Day in the World" on April 15th , the day when Leonardo da Vinci was born, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Tokyo organized an exhibition on the instrumentation developed for the JEM-EUSO experiment, concurrently with three scientific seminars held by Marco Casolino, INFN-Rome and team leader at RIKEN, Barbara Mercheri from University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and Luca Pellegrino, CNR-SPIN. Luca Pellegrino gave a seminar entitled “Microsystems and Crystals”.

Read  More ...

news at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura website

 

 

Luca Pellegrino visited ISIR-Osaka University and performed joint experiments with ISIR lab members, working on VO2-based microelectromechanical structures. Luca Pellegrino acknowledges all the members of Prof. Tanaka laboratory for their hospitality.

 

 


 

 

Luca Pellegrino has been invited to give a seminar at the Nihonbashi Life Science Building in Tokyo in the framework of the professional activity groupSingle-Nanometer Figuration and the Structure-Induced Property (see website)” organized as part of JSAP (The Japan Society of Applied Physics) to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and achievement in particular fields. He gave a seminar on “All-oxide MEMS Sensors and Actuators”.

Luca Pellegrino acknowledges prof. H. Tanaka and all the attendants for stimulating discussions.

 


 

 

Nicola Manca attended the spring meeting 2018 of the MP1308 TO-BE COST Action ("Towards Oxide-Based Electronics") in Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Catalonia, Spain),  12 - 14 March 2018. Nicola Manca presented a poster on VO2 structures entitled “high-frequency mechanical actuation in VO2-based MEMS by a DC voltage source”

 

Read more about TO-BE cost action … (http://to-be.spin.cnr.it/ )

The Italian and Japanese teams was granted with the Joint research projects 2018-2019 between the National Research Council (CNR) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in the framework of the Bilateral agreements of Scientific and Technological Cooperation. Project leaders: Luca Pellegrino, Teruo Kanki.

The project entitled “Domain manipulation in VO2 Freestanding Nanomechanical Structures” is synergic with the above mentioned one, as it will investigate more fundamental aspects related to the effect of deformation on the physical properties of VO2 nanomechanical structures. The two projects will share results and expertize on films growth and device fabrication with beneficial mutual cross-fertilization.


 

Project meeting in ISIR- Osaka Univ.

Luca Pellegrino and Nicola Manca visited ISIR members to make joint research and seminars. We began with the fabrication of a prototype of VO2 actuator and started its first characterization. We also deeply discussed about the effects of built-in strain in VO2-based MEMS structures.  An intense week of research ! stay in contact for future developments of VO2-based devices !!! During the stay we also visited Murata company.

 

 

 

Prof. Teruo Kanki, Prof. Hidekazu Tanaka, Dr. Luca Pellegrino, Dr. Nicola Manca, Mr.Yoshiyuki Higuchi, Mr. Fumiya Endo visited Murata Manufacturing Company in Yasu (Japan). Prof. Tanaka introduced research activities of his laboratory with the talk “Controlling correlated electrons in Nanomaterials towards phase change electronics.” Dr. Luca Pellegrino gave a talk on “Perspectives of VO2 for new applications in micro/nano actuators”. We acknowledge Dr. Ryuichi Kubo and Dr.  Osamu Nakagawara  from Murata Company for the invitation and all the members attending the meeting for stimulating discussions !

 

 

 

Teruo Kanki and Luca Pellegrino participate to Festival della Scienza 2017

Prof. Teruo Kanki, Dr. Luca Zanotti (STMicroelectronics) and Dr. Luca Pellegrino debate at Festival della Scienza 2017. The title of their debate has been "Motori del Micromondo tra presente e futuro"  "Motors of the Microworld: present and future". This year the guest country of the Festival has been Japan ! Different events on Japanese culture have been organized at Palazzo della Borsa in Genova. Conferences on themes related to scientific collaborations between Italy and Japan have been organized by the Festival commitee.

   

 

 

Project meeting in CNR-SPIN - Phys. Dept of Univ. of Genova

Prof. Teruo Kanki, Prof. Hidekazu Tanaka and Mr. Yoshiyuki Higuchi visited the Italian team and the laboratories of material science at Phys. Dept.  Prof. H. Tanaka gave a seminar on "An overview on the activities at ISIR, Osaka University on Nanotechnology" and Prof. T. Kanki discussed on "Functional oxide-based nanowire-transistor". At project meeting, Mr. Y. Higuchi presented his last results on VO2 thin film deposition and electrical characterization of VO2-based freestanding structures. The two teams performed fabrication of new samples and mechanical measurements with the customized setup developed for MEMS characterisation.

 

 

Nicola Manca visited the Molecular Materials Research Team at the Institut de Ciéncia Molecular, University of Valencia (Spain), invited by Prof. Eugenio Coronado Miralles. He presented the recent result of the project and gave a seminar on “High-frequency mechanical actuation in a VO2-based MEMS by a DC voltage source”. Nicola Manca acknowledges Julien Dugay and all the members of the group for the interesting discussions and the warm welcome !

Luca Pellegrino visited l'équipe Electronique in GREYC-ENSICAEN (Caen, France) and gave a seminar on "All-oxide MEMS Sensors and Actuators". Luca Pellegrino acknowledges interesting discussions with Dr. Laurence Mechin, Dr. Bruno Guillet and all the members of the center !
Luca Pellegrino attended the conference Eurosensors 2017 in Paris and gave a lecture on "VO2: a phase change material for micromechanics".  Proceedings of the presented lecture are available at the MDPI website.