NSF Org:	CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
Recipient:	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE
Initial Amendment Date:	September 26, 2001
Latest Amendment Date:	September 22, 2006
Award Number:	0114309
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Mary Lynn Realff CMMI  Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG  Directorate for Engineering
Start Date:	September 1, 2001
End Date:	August 31, 2006 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$0.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$430,641.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2001 = $418,641.00 FY 2002 = $12,000.00
History of Investigator:	Peter Wong (Principal Investigator) pwong@rwu.edu Teiichi Ando (Co-Principal Investigator) Charalabos Doumanidis (Former Co-Principal Investigator) Simona Socrate (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Tufts University 80 GEORGE ST MEDFORD MA  US  02155-5519 (617)627-3696
Sponsor Congressional District:	05
Primary Place of Performance:	Tufts University 80 GEORGE ST MEDFORD MA  US  02155-5519
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	05
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	WL9FLBRVPJJ7
Parent UEI:	WL9FLBRVPJJ7
NSF Program(s):	MATERIALS PROCESSING AND MANFG
Primary Program Source:	01000102DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT app-0102
Program Reference Code(s):	9146, 9178, 9251, MANU
Program Element Code(s):	146700
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.041

ABSTRACT

This program will introduce and analyze a new rapid manufacturing technology for fabrication of functional miniature devices with integrated intelligent structures and encapsulated components. This will be based on the ultrasonic welding (USW) process, a solid-state, cold joining technique, yielding strong bonding between dissimilar metals and other materials. Ultrasonic rapid manufacturing (URM) will utilize multiple material foils and fibers, that will be bonded in subsequent layers, followed by ultrasonically assisted diamond scribing to the proper contours. Fundamental understanding and comprehensive modeling of microscale USW, will be addressed by a hybrid experimental and computational process analysis. Extensive characterization of the joint structure and properties of aluminum bonds to other selected metal alloys will be performed in the laboratory. Knowledge gained from this research will define optimal process conditions, allow intensive study of microscale material effects, making it accessible through incorporation in a continuous ultrasonic transformation database. Numerical simulation of the interdependent mechanical, thermal and diffusion distributions during the USW process will be conducted in concert with the experimental work. Researchers at Tufts University and Northeastern University will collaborate on this project.

This URM research will be connected with the engineering curriculum to leverage rapid manufacturing education. This will be promoted by a new undergraduate/graduate course on Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing, as a basis for a future Rapid Manufacturing minor; a new SFF and Microfabrication Seminar series with invited industry experts; and an annual Rapid Manufacturing Contest for undergraduate student groups nationwide. The program will involve close collaboration of the partnering institutions. Industrial sponsorship through in-kind equipment and technical support will also be provided by Axcelis Technologies, Honda R&D Americas and Stapla Ultrasonics. The benefits of the new technology will be harnessed in the design and fabrication of miniature multi-material internal structures, with embedded prefabricated elements (sensors, actuators, processors, MEMS etc), providing multi-domain functionality in mechatronic, optoelectronic, microfluidic, biomedical microdevices etc.

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.