Mojgan
Daneshmand
wants
to
make
switches
smaller.
A
lot
smaller.
“For
a
multifunctional
system,
you
need
so
many
switches,”
she
explains.
“Size
becomes
an
issue.”
It’s
a
particular
problem
in
portable
devices,
like
cell
phones,
or
in
ones
where
weight
is
critical,
like
orbiting
satellites,
which
are
Mojgan’s
particular
interest.
Mojgan
believes
that
RF
MEMS
(radio-frequency
micro-electro-mechanical)
switches
are
the
answer.
They
can
be
as
small
as
100
microns
–
five
times
smaller
than
the
period
at
the
end
of
this
sentence
–
but
they
work
as
well
as
centimetre-long
mechanical
switches.
But
RF
MEMS
switching
is
a
technology
in
its
infancy.
As
a
Waterloo
electrical
engineering
doctoral
student
and
then
a
post-doctoral
fellow,
Mojgan
worked
to
bring
her
switches
out
of
the
lab,
developing
new
designs
–
she
filed
for
two
patents
–
and
new
testing
and
fabrication
procedures.
The
fabrication
process
she
and
her
colleagues
put
in
place
is
so
successful
that
people
from
all
over
the
world
submit
their
designs
to
Waterloo
to
be
built.
Mojgan’s
next
project?
Using
her
switches
for
another
application
where
size
and
reliability
are
both
critical:
medical
implants.
Graduate student, Electrical Engineering