Powering Wireless Sensors using a Kinetic Energy Harvester Designed for Extremely Low-Amplitude Vibration Environments (Energy Harvesting & Storage USA 2009)

Dr. Richard L. Waters currently works for the Advanced Integrated Circuits and Sensors Branch at the Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center, Pacific (SSC-Pacific). During his 10 years at SSC-Pacific, Dr. Waters has served as PI for projects from DARPA, ONR, AFRL, NSA, FBI and ODNI as well as internally funded R&D and S&T projects. He previously served as fabrication manager at SSC-Pacific's former Integrated Circuit Fabrication Facility (ICFF) which served as the Navy's principle site for the development of advanced silicon-based integrated circuit materials, designs, devices and fabrication technologies. He is co-founder of Lumedyne Technologies, a company committed to the commercialization of advanced inertial technology and energy harvesting concepts.

 

In April 2007, he was recognized by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research Development and Acquisition, as one of the top scientists within the Navy. In 2005, he was awarded the inaugural 'S&T Excellence' award at SSC-Pacific for his contributions to R&D development and his successful transitioning of those technologies to other DoD programs. He holds a senior membership with the IEEE and is a member of AMSE, AUVSI and NDIA. Dr. Waters' current research interests include novel MEMS-based devices and their application to navigation, surveillance, power generation, chemical / biological detection and condition-based monitoring.

The Advanced Circuits and Sensors Branch at SSC-SD previously housed the Integrated Circuit Fabrication Facility (ICFF) which served as the Navy's principle site for the development of advanced silicon-based integrated circuit materials, designs, devices and fabrication technologies. The new "Fab-less" design group has retained all previous design and test capabilities as well as fabrication knowledge and design expertise. Particular attention is directed to technologies that are of interest to the Department of Defense but are not currently part of the commercial mainstream in integrated circuit and sensor development. Examples include long-term commitments to the development and maintenance of radiation-hard processes based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) substrates as well as sensor development including MEMS-based devices. Combined with an emphasis on development and pilot-scale production is the high level of manufacturing discipline that is a prerequisite for the transfer of technology to industry when larger-scale production builds are required.

The Advanced Integrated Circuits and Sensors Branch at SSC San Diego is fully capable of performing any task in integrated circuit and sensor design to packaging and testing. It serves as a technology research and development center, maintaining a reservoir of government expertise in IC and sensor manufacturing. It is currently pursuing cooperative agreements with academic, government and industry partners on projects of interest to the Department of Defense and other government agencies.