Ting Tsui

Ting Tsui is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and is cross-appointed to the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo. He is also a researcher in the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology and the head of the Nanomechanics Research Institute.

The group’s research focuses on elastic constraint effects on small scale fractures in thin films, mechanical reliability of nano-scale devices, fracture of porous brittle materials used in advanced integrated circuits, and the mechanical properties of materials for lead free solder applications. Professor Tsui’s group has also developed techniques to fabricate nanometer scale structures for various applications. These processing methods include plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD), e-beam lithography, and electroplating.

In 2013, Professor Tsui began a research collaboration with Dr. Frank Gu, working to understand how bacterial cells interact with mental nanopillars. They aim to develop novel nanometer scale surface features that can diminish the adhesion strength between metals and bacterial cells, which can reduce the chance of infection after metal implantation surgeries.

In addition to his research work, Professor Tsui holds 29 patents and has published more than 50 journal manuscripts.

• Integrate circuits
• PECVD
• Low-k dielectrics
• Nanoindentation
• Fracture
• Semi-conductors
• Nanotechnology
• Ceramics
• Adhesion
• Plasma-Enhanced chemical vapor deposition
• Porous ultra-low-dielectric constant materials
• Nano-mechanics
• Thin film mechanical properties

• 1997, Doctorate, Materials Science, Rice University
• 1992, Master's, Materials Science, Rice University
• 1990, Bachelor's, Ceramic Engineering, Clemson University

• CHE 755 - Res Tpcs in Electrochem. Eng.
  • Taught in 2016
• NE 113 - Intro to Computational Methods
  • Taught in 2016, 2017, 2018
• CHE 750 - Tpcs in Electrochemistry
  • Taught in 2017
• NE 302 - Nano Engineering Practice
  • Taught in 2017
• NE 125 - Intro to Materials Sci & Eng
  • Taught in 2018
• NE 318 - Continuum Mechanics for Nanot
  • Taught in 2019, 2020
• CHE 765 - Res Tpcs in Biochemical Eng.
  • Taught in 2020
• NE 100 - Introduction to Nanotechnology
  • Taught in 2018, 2019, 2020

• Moussa, Hassan I and Logan, Megan and Siow, Geoffrey C and Phann, Darron L and Rao, Zheng and Aucoin, Marc G and Tsui, Ting Y, Manipulating mammalian cell morphologies using chemical-mechanical polished integrated circuit chips, Science and Technology of advanced MaTerialS, 18(1), 2017, 839 - 856
• Lee, Jung-A and Lee, Dong-Hyun and Seok, Moo-Young and Choi, In-Chul and Han, Heung Nam and Tsui, Ting Y and Ramamurty, Upadrasta and Jang, Jae-il, Significant strengthening of nanocrystalline Ni sub-micron pillar by cyclic loading in elastic regime, Scripta Materialia, 140, 2017, 31 - 34
• Seo, Brandon B and Gu, Junhua and Jahed, Zeinab and Tsui, Ting Y, Influence of grain boundary modifier on the strength size-dependence displayed by complex-shaped nanocrystalline nickel pillars, Thin Solid Films, 621, 2017, 178 - 183
• Jahed, Zeinab and Shahsavan, Hamed and Verma, Mohit S and Rogowski, Jacob L and Seo, Brandon B and Zhao, Boxin and Tsui, Ting Y and Gu, Frank X and Mofrad, Mohammad RK, Bacterial networks on hydrophobic micropillars, ACS nano, 11(1), 2017, 675 - 683
• Seo, Brandon B and Jahed, Zeinab and Coggan, Jennifer A and Chau, Yeung Yeung and Rogowski, Jacob L and Gu, Frank X and Wen, Weijia and Mofrad, Mohammad RK and Tsui, Ting Yiu, Mechanical Contact Characteristics of PC3 Human Prostate Cancer Cells on Complex-Shaped Silicon Micropillars, Materials, 10(8), 2017

• Currently accepting applications for graduate students