MIT.nano Seminar—Magnetics in MEMS: From DC to GHz
Building 34, Room 401, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA
Mark Allen Alfred Fitler Moore Professor Chair, Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering University of Pennsylvania Date: October 9, 2026 Time: 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET Location: Grier Room A (34-401) Register ABSTRACT The use of magnetic materials in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) - both magnetically soft (permeable materials) and magnetically hard (permanent magnets) - opens rich new applications sets for MEMS. This presentation will discuss multiple applications based on magnetic MEMS: point-of-load power conversion, adaptive RF filtering of microwave signals, and magneto-optomechanical relays for EMI-immune switch control. To achieve compact switching power converters, both switching at high frequency and the use of high saturation flux density materials such as iron-based alloys are desirable. However, at high switching frequencies, electrically conducting magnetic materials may suffer from eddy current loss. Allen will discuss a materials fabrication technique that allows additive fabrication of a multiscale magnetic material from a large number of insulated iron alloy sheets (lamina), at individual sheet thickness scales that suppress eddy currents (on the order of…