Microsystems engineering from nano to micro and macro

Biological systems are networks of structures at different physical scale hierarchies that operate at performance levels set by fundamental physical limits, under severe constraints of size, weight and energy resources. They are indeed, engineering marvels of heterogeneous integration and structural complexity. In this talk I begin first with an overview of emerging information technologies. I then proceed to describe work in my lab demonstrating how we are exploring the characteristics of the devices at the different physical scales, from nano to micro and macro to obtain useful functionality at the system level. I will describe microsystems for bio-sensing, polarization imaging and interferometric optical readout. Our systems incorporate silicon integrated circuits, electromechanical elements, active and passive micro-optical elements, as well as "soft" polymer and biological macromolecules. Looking ahead at the challenges that we face as we seek to synthesize such heterogeneous microsystems, Nature, is undoubtly, a good place to draw inspiration!