What is MEMS? Is it easy to build simple MEMS circuit for high school science fair project?
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MEMS stands for micro electro-mechanical systems. It is a technology that combines microelectronics with the fabrication of small (typically 10s of microns) mechanical structures. The fabrication of such devices requires a clean room (typically 10s of millions of dollars AUS) and expensive equipment that is normally out of the price range of most high schools. Then again if you're near a major university with friendly staff you may be able to organise a field trip.\nThe most fundamental MEMS device would be the accelerometer. It consists of a suspended mass attached by four thin beams or comb like structures at its corners to the silicon wafer it was etched from. As it accelerates the mass will move and the resistance or capacitance of the beam or comb respectively will change. Thus acceleration is measured with a device that can fit on (and in fact take up a very small portion of) a chip.\nYou could probably do a similar high school lab by building a large scale model. That it would miss the whole purpose of it being micro is too much a problem for the students as the micro version requires a microscope to see anyway. You'll need to get you're hands on some strain gauges (Check with someone in the Civil Engineering field) to measure the bending caused by the acceleration.\n\nA quick google gave me the following site that had a few pictures (you'll probably be able to find better ones with a bit more looking):\nhttp://home.earthlink.net/~trimmerw/mems/tutorials.html
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try it... then you might want to go into details like integrated circuits ICs and transistors...\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor
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electropneumatic circuit \n\nhttp://www.festo-didactic.com/ov3/media/customers/1100/0000607001156324537.pdf\n\n:>peace
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The science and technology of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and molecules. Bottom-up, or self-assembly, approaches to nanofabrication use chemical or physical forces operating at the nanoscale to assemble basic units into larger structures. As component size decreases in nanofabrication, bottom-up approaches provide an increasingly important complement to top-down techniques. The most common top-down approach to fabrication involves lithographic patterning techniques using short-wavelength optical sources. A key advantage of the top-down approach—as developed in the fabrication of integrated circuits—is that the parts are both patterned and built in place, so that no assembly step is needed.  The benefit to these types of technology are it is easier for something small to build something small, therefore human interaction is no longer needed the nanos can build themselves reducing error and manpower necessary.
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Please follow the links\nhttp://www.BIO-MEMS.ORG \nhttp://www.BIOINFORMATICS.CC \nhttp://www.BIOTECH-RESEARCH.INFO \nhttp://www.BIOTECH-RESEARCH.NET \nhttp://www.BIOTECHRESEARCH.BIZ
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Do not go for the normal, typical projects that wind up at every science fair--the volcano, the planet mobile, etc.  Just do a project on something you are truly interested in.  Anything can be a science fair project:\n\nDoes expensive lipstick last longer than cheap lipstick?\nDo vegetables last longer on the counter or refrigerated?\nWhich hamburger molds first: McDonald's, Burger King's, or Hardee's?\nDo food packages really contain the amount (weight) of food they list on their packaging?\nCan people tell the difference between namebrand vs. generic shampoo, soda, candy, etc?
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Flip flops are embedded in microchips and provide many varied logic functions. Check the Wiki reference in the link below, its pretty good and contains graphics.\n\nI've also added a couple of other reliable links.
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They are called Surface-Mount resistors, and they look like little rectangular boxes about the size of breadcrumbs.  Of course it's hard to tell which ones are resistors since diodes and small capacitors also come in this size and style.  If you've broken one off they are hard to get back on properly.  You'll need to ask a friend who has surface mount soldering skills and an expensive soldering iron made exactly for such a task.
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http://www.web-ee.com/\n\nhttp://www.mini-itx.com/\n\nhttp://www.discovercircuits.com/index.htm\n\nhttp://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/circuits.htm\n\nhttp://www.imagineeringezine.com/e-zine/hcircuits.html\n\nhttp://www.flashwebhost.com/circuit/\n\nhttp://electronicsworld.tripod.com/
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The science fair\nAsk your teacher
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If you are interested in learning about electronics you might look into BEAM robotics (BEAM = Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, Mechanics). Their approach is to design robots whose interactions with the environment are built into the electronics rather than programmed like most robots. They have a history of liking to scavenge parts from old electronic and mechanical devices. They also have a very active and helpful community that includes many kids your age learning about electronics and robotics (look around for a mailing list in the links, I'm sure there's still an active one). Don't be intimidated by the elctronics stuff, in my experience that's the easy part, the hard part is getting the moving parts to work. I am attaching some links below:
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nanotechnology is working with microchips and tiny electrical stuff.
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i'M IN SIXTH GRADE, AND A GOOD SCIENCE FAIR TOPIC WOULD BE "WHICH SUBSTANCE CONDUCTS ELECTRICITY BEST". iT IS REALLY EASY TO DO AND YOU CAN HAVE LOTS OF GRAPHS. FOR EXAMPLE I HAVE 21 GRAPHS. AND MY WHOLE ENTIRE BOOK IS 93 PAGES LONG. \n\nHOPE i HELP YA!!
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Nanotech is indeed real. Have you never seen surveillance cameras the size of a dime, and what about tracking devices about the size of a cigarette lighter?Do you remember how many different components use to be in a regular am radio & tv set? Tubes, capacitors, resistors, coils, etc. are now on a pc circuit board in the form of an integrated circuit about 1"x1/4". The first computer ever devised needed many rooms to house. The laptop now is less than the sise of some wire bound notebooks high school kids carry.
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Try http://www.asic-world.com/digital/boolean.html for a beginning.  I would start with basic boolean math.  That often will help you simplify a large logic circuit down to something you can build.
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Hey! I just finished learning about active transport! The teacher confused me soooo bad! I had to have a friend in my class explain it to me. I would suggest going to google and typing in "active transport" and clicking on the news tab on the top. good luck with your project!
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This site has a wealth of information. I often use it as a starting point when looking for a new type of circuit:\nhttp://www.discovercircuits.com/list.htm