Impact of Judylab Research and Teaching Activities

The following products, companies, technologies, and people have been impacted by the research and teaching performance by Judylab members.

• The successor for the Hubble Telescope, known as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is being enabled by magnetic MEMS technology invented by Judylab members and adapted to its space mission by engineers and scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). A video providing a good general overview of the JWST and how it will accomplish its scientific goals is available here along with other videos including a nice pan-around video.

• The Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) is one of four key instruments in the Integrated Science Instrument Module the comprises the heat of the JWST. The NIRSpec can simultaneously capture the spectra of more than 100 objects while blocking the light from nearer and brighter objects. The NIRSpec makes use of a very large array of microshutters that can be individually rotated 90 degrees to let light through or left unactuated to block light. The micromechanical shutters are actuated magnetically and then the digital state of the microshutter is fixed by applying electrostatic forces. The magnetic-actuation-with-electrostatic-clamping technology was developed by Prof. Judy for his dissertation research and is well described by his seminal paper on the topic and this patent.

The following images and videos illustrate the Judylab magnetic microactuation technology that uses electrostatic clamping to address individual devices.

First Judylab magnetic MEMS device on a polysilicon microcantilever (no field applied).	First Judylab magnetic MEMS device on a polysilicon microcantilever (strong magnetic field applied). (movie)	Magnetic microactuator operating in a conductive saline environment with paramecium present. (movie)

First torsional magnetic MEMS device with a polysilicon microflexure (no field applied).	First torsional magnetic MEMS device with a polysilicon microflexure (some field applied).	First torsional magnetic MEMS device with a polysilicon microflexure (strong field applied).

Various torsional magnetic microactuators that can be electrostatically clamped. There is also a movie.

Left Clamped, Right Clamped	Left Unclamped, Right Clamped
Left Unclamped, Right Unclamped	Left Clamped, Right Unclamped

The following images and videos illustrate the GSFC microshutter array that uses magnetic microactuation with electrostatic clamping.