phd Theses
Miguel Sérgio de Abreu Neto – Program PhD within MIT-Portugal, by the Instituto Superior Técnico Lisbon (July 2021)
Diogo Caetano “Integrated Circuits for Driving and Precise Reading of Integrated Resistive Sensors” PhD degree in Electrical Engineering by the Instituto Superior Técnico Lisbon ( March 2021)
Eduardo Brás “Biocatalysis in microfluidic systems: Biosensing and rapid screening applications”, PhD in Biotechnology and Bioscience by IST (September 2020)
Rui Pinto “Thin-film silicon microelectromechanical systems for mass sensing and biosensing applications” PhD in Biotechnology and Bioscience by IST (February 2020)
Catarina José Dias “Memristor Based Adaptive Neural Networks”, PhD in Physics by FCUP (March 2019)
Hua Lv “Optimization of Perpendicular Anisotropy Materials for High Performance Spin Transfer Torque Devices”, PhD in Physics by IST (February 2019)
Daniel Silva "Microfluidic separation using aqueous two phase systems", PhD in Biotechnology by IST (December 2018)
Denis Santos "Integrated biosensors for Lab-on-a-Chip platforms", PhD Biomedical Engineering Systems (October 2018)
Ruben Soares "Development of an Integrated Microfluidic Mycotoxin Screening Chip for Point-Of-Need Food Safety Applications", PhD in Biotechnology by IST (October 2018)
Inês Pinto "Screening of multimodal ligands for the capture and polishing of antibody streams: A microfluidic approach for rapid optimization of chromatographic operating conditions", PhD in Biotechnology by IST (September 2018)
Prototyping a Spintronics Lab on Chip System for cancer liquid biopsy analysis
Tomás Dias
PhD Degree in Bioengineering
Defended on: 7 December 2017
Annealing-Free Alox Magnetic Tunnel Junction Sensors
Simon Knudde
PhD degree in Technological Physics Engineering
Defended on: 5 July 2017
Towards sub-100 nm Magnetoresistive Devices: From Simultations to Applications
Ana Neves Vieira da Silva
PhD degree in Technological Physics Engineering
Defended on: 14 March 2016
Microfluidic cell culture platforms for the study of the molecular mechanisms of Parkinson's disease
João Tiago dos Santos Fernandes
PhD degree in Biotechnology
Defended on: 7 December 2015
Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders but its etiology is still unknown. However, two key factors have been identified in PD: the protein a-synuclein (aSyn) - the main component of the pathological protein aggregates known as Lewy bodies - and inflammation - mediated by microglia, the immune cells of the brain. Microfluidics offers the possibility of studying cell models in ways that are difficult or even impossible to perform with traditional cell culture methods. In this thesis we developed two elastomeric microfluidic platforms that provide new ways of studying the molecular mechanisms of PD. The first platform consists in a chemical gradient generator connected to chambers containing hydrodynamic single-cell traps. This device was used to study genetically modified Saccharomyces cerevisiae producing human aSyn fused with a GFP tag. The second platform was designed to study the communication between two different cell populations by soluble molecules. This platform was used to study the spreading of the protein aSyn and the effects of the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by N9 microglial cells on H4 cells.
Dynamics of thin-film silicon flexural MEMS: from material properties to electrical characterization
João Maria Melo Albuquerque Saraiva Mouro
PhD degree in Technological Physics Engineering
Defended on: 19 November 2015
This dissertation is focused on the design, fabrication and characterization of flexural resonators, made of hydrogenated amorphous or nanocrystalline silicon. This technology which uses a maximum processing temperature of 200 ºC permits fabrication of MEMS devices, in particular resonators, on alternative substrates such as glass and allows the possibility of integration with either large electronics or CMOS backend processing. The thesis studied the effect of the mechanical stress of the structural layer (from tensile to highly compressive) on the device resonance frequency, quality factor and required actuation force was studied and interpreted with detailed mechanical models. Non-linear effects and their implications on the motional parameters of the resonators were studied in detail. The dynamic response of the resonators is experimentally studied by using different combinations of actuation voltages. Phenomena of super and subharmonic resonances, and parametric amplification and resonance are observed.
Jose Pedro Anselmo Amaral, “Measuring Neuronal Activity with High Sensitivity Magnetoresistive Sensors”, PhD in Biomedical Engineering by the IST Lisbon (July 2014)
Pedro Novo,“Advanced optical lab-on-chips for point-of-care applications”, PhD in Materials Science and Engineering by the IST Lisbon, (July 2014)
Diogo Martins, “Label-Free Electrical Detection of Chemical Binding Events in Micro and Nanochannels” PhD Biotechnology, (supervisor: João Pedro Conde; co-supervised by Prof. Miguel Prazeres, Department of Bioengineering of IST) (January, 2013)
Alexandra Gualdino “RF-MEMS plate resonators made from low-temperature hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films”, PhD in Materials Science and Engineering by IST (November 2013)
Rui Chaves, “PicoTesla Magnetoresistive Sensor and Single Bead Actuation and Detection On-Chip Platform”, PhD in Physics Engineering by the IST Lisbon (April 2012)
Agnieszka Joskówiak, “Integration of light sensor arrays with microfluidic networks to scale down 2D fluorescence spectroscopy for high throughput organism/cell condition analysis”, IST, MIT-Portugal Program in Bioengineering (May 2012)
Filipe Arroyo Cardoso, “Design, optimization and integration of magnetoresistive biochips”, IST, Technological Physics Engineering (February 2011)
Joana Loureiro, “Lab on Chip microsystem for flow cytometric analysis, separation and counting of cells and particles”, PhD in Technological Physics Engineering by IST (February 2011)
Rita Macedo, “Spintronic Nano Devices: Nanofabrication of sub-50 nm Magnetic Tunnel Junctions and Self-Powered Hybrid Sensors”, PhD in Technological Physics Engineering by IST (July 2011)
Andre Guedes, “Hybrid sensors for ultra low magnetic field detection”, IST, Physics engineering (February, 2010)
Ana Teresa Pereira, “Integrated Amorphous Silicon Photodiodes for Chemiluminescence, Colorimetric and Fluorescence Protein Detection” PhD in Biotechnology by IST (December 2010)
Ricardo Cabeça, “Electric-field assisted DNA surface immobilization and hybridization” PhD in Biotechnology (March 2009)
Verónica Martins, “A magnetoresistive biochip platform”, PhD in Biological Engineering by IST (May 2009)
José Almeida, “Tunnel junction sensors”, PhD in Physics Engineering by IST (June 2009)
Alexandra Pimentel, “Development of an integrated platform for fluorescence detection of biomolecules”, PhD in Materials Science and Engineering by IST (October 2009)
Ricardo Ferreira, “Ion Beam Deposited Magnetic Spin Tunnel Junctions targeting HDD Read Heads, Non-volatile Memories and Magnetic Field Sensor Applications” (April 2008)
Dina Gonçalves, “Label-Free Detection of Biomolecules using Amorphous Silicon Ion-Sensitive Field-Effect Transistors” (July 2008)
Jianguo Wang , “Low-resistance tunnel junctions for read head applications ” (2002)