Contact

Address

University of Utah
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
50 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 4108
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9206

Phone: (801) 587-9497
Fax: (801) 581-5281
Office: MEB 4108
E-mail: hanseup@ece.utah.edu

Open Positions for Bio/Nano/Micro-Engineering Applications

Postdoctoral / Ph.D. Candidate Openings

A Post-Doctoral Researcher position and Ph.D. Candidate/Student Research Positions are available in bio-, nano-, and micro-engineering.

View the position announcement for more information.

Research Interests

Bio Nano- and Micro-systems in Moving Fluids

• Bio-Microsystems and Micro medical devices,
• Micro-scale gas and liquid flow control (micropumps and valves),
• Micro analytical systems for environmental/health monitoring,
• Micro gas/liquid chromatography techniques, such as ion separation techniques,
• Biomedical packaging research for Microsystems, and
• Micro cryogenic cooling.

System Integration, Robots, and Energy Harvesting

• Microsystem integration of sensors, actuators and circuits,
• Micro robots and actuator systems,
• Micro hydraulic systems for high-pressure applications,
• Micro energy harvesting systems, and
• Nano structures and manufacturing technology (Polymer/silicon).

Education

2006 - Ph.D., Electrical Engineering. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

2003 - M.S., Electrical Engineering. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

1997 - B.S., Electric/Electrical/Control Engineering. Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Patents

K. Najafi, H. Kim, L. Bernal, A. Astle, and P. Washabaugh, “Micropump assembly for a micro gas chromatograph and the like,” US patent, No. 7,008,193 B2, March 2006.

+ Four other pending patent applications

Publications

Book Chapters

1. H. Kim, K. Najafi, and L. Bernal (2008), “Gas Micropumps.” In: Yogesh Gianchandani, Osamu Tabata, and Hans Zappe, (Editors in Chief), Comprehensive Microsystems, vol. 2, pp. 273-300. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
2. K. Najafi, T. Harpster, H. Kim, J. Mitchell, and W. Welch (2008), “Wafer Bonding.” In: Yogesh Gianchandani, Osamu Tabata, and Hans Zappe, (Editors in Chief), Comprehensive Microsystems, vol. 1, pp. 235-370. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Selected Journal Papers

1. H. Kim, A. Astle, K. Najafi, L. Bernal, and P. Washabaugh, “Design, fabrication, and performance of an integrated electrostatic peristaltic 18-stage gas micropump with active microvalves: Part I and Part II,” in revision for the Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS).
2. B. Huang, C. Lawrence, A. Gross, G. Hwang, N. Ghafouri, S. Lee, H. Kim, C. Li, C. Uher, K. Najafi, and M. Kaviany, “Low-temperature characterization and micro patterning of co-evaporated Bi2Te3/Sb2Te3 Films,” accepted and to appear in the Journal of Applied Physics (JAP), October, 2008.
3. G. Hwang, A. Gross, H. Kim, S. Lee, N. Ghafouri, B. Huang, C. Lawrence, C. Uher, K. Najafi, and M. Kaviany, “Micro Thermoelectric Cooler: Planar Multistage,” accepted and to appear in the IEEE Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (JHMT), Elsevier, June, 2008.
4. H. Kim and K. Najafi, “Characterization of aligned wafer-level transfer of thin and flexible Parylene membranes,” IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS), Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 1386-1396, December 2007.
5. A. Astle, H. Kim, L. Bernal, K. Najafi, and P. Washabaugh, “Theoretical and experimental performance of a high frequency gas micropump,” Sensors and Actuators A: Physics (SNA), Vol. 134, No. 1, pp. 245-256, February 2007.
6. H. Kim and K. Najafi, “Characterization of low-temperature wafer bonding using thin film Parylene,” IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS), Vol. 14, No. 6, pp. 1347-1355, December 2005.
7. G. Nam*, S. Lee*, J. Chae*, H. Kim*, and A. Drake, “Hybrid two-dimensional position detection system using MEMS accelerometer,” IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (TVLSI) Systems, Vol. 13, No. 10, pp. 1167-1178, October 2005. (* equally contributed.)

Conference Papers

1. T. Galchev, H. Kim, and K. Najafi, “Non-resonant bi-stable frequency-increased power scavenger from low-frequency ambient vibration,” accepted for in Proc. 15th Int. Conf. on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators, and Microsystems (Transducers ’09), Denver, Colorado, Jun. 21-25, 2009.
2. S. Lee, S. Yee, A. Besharatian, H. Kim, and K. Najafi, “Adaptive gas pumping by controlled timing of active microvalves in peristaltic micropumps,” accepted for in Proc. 15th Int. Conf. on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators, and Microsystems (Transducers ’09), Denver, Colorado, Jun. 21-25, 2009.
3. A. Gross, B. Huang, G. Hwang, L. Yang, N. Ghafouri, H. Kim, C. Uher, M. Kaviany, and K. Najafi, “High-performance micro scale thermoelectric cooler: An optimized 6-stage cooler,” accepted for in Proc. 15th Int. Conf. on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators, and Microsystems (Transducers ’09), Denver, Colorado, Jun. 21-25, 2009.
4. H. Kim and K. Najafi, “An electrically-driven, large-deflection, high-force micro piston hydraulic actuator array for large-scale micro fluidic systems,” in Proc. 22nd IEEE Int. Conf. on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS ’09), Sorrento, Italy, 2009, pp. 483-486.
5. D. Egert, H. Kim, and K. Najafi, “Characterization of Parylene bonding for vacuum packaging,” in Proc. 22nd International Conference Euro-Sensors (Eurosensors ’08), Dresden, Germany, Sept. 7-10, 2008.
6. H. Kim, S. Lee, and K. Najafi, “High-force liquid-gap electrostatic hydraulic micro actuators,” in Proc. 11th Int. Conf. on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (µTAS ’07), Paris, France, Oct. 7-11, 2007, pp. 1735-1737.
7. H. Kim, W. Steinecker, S. Reidy, G. Lambertus, A. Astle, K. Najafi, E. Zellers, L. Bernal, P. Washabaugh, and K. Wise, “Micropump-driven high-speed MEMS gas chromatography system,” in Proc. 14th Int. Conf. on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators, and Microsystems (Transducers ’07), Lyon, France, Jun. 10-14, 2007, pp. 1505-1508.
8. H. Kim, A. Jaregui, C. Morrison, K. Najafi, L. Bernal, and P. Washabaugh, “Low-power electrostatic microthruster for propulsion based on Helmholtz-resonance,” in Proc. 20th IEEE Int. Conf. on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS ’07), Kobe, Japan, Jan. 21-25, 2007, pp. 127-130.
9. H. Kim, A. Astle, K. Najafi, L. Bernal, P. Washabaugh, and F. Cheng, “Bi-directional electrostatic microspeaker with two large-deflection flexible membranes actuated by single/dual electrodes,” in Proc. 4th IEEE Conf. on Sensors (Sensors ’05), Irvine, CA, Oct. 31-Nov. 3, 2005, pp. 89-92.
10. H. Kim, A. Ucok, and K. Najafi, “Large-Deflection Stacked Mult-Electrode Electrostatic Actuator,” in Proc. 11th Solid-State Sensor, Actuator, and Microsystems Workshop (Hilton Head ’04), Hilton Head Island, SC, Jun. 6-10, 2004, pp. 340-343.

Awards

2008 Best Paper Award with other co-authors in the International Conference on Commercialization of Micro and Nano Systems (COMS ’08)

2001 Best Paper Award with four other co-authors in the 38th Design Automation Conference (DAC ‘01)

2001 First Prize in conceptual category in the international student design contest in the 38th Design Automation Conference (DAC ‘01)