Potassium hydroxide etching is widely used to thin silicon in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, but measuring thickness during the process is often destructive or complex. To solve this, the PREM team at Fort Lewis College developed a noninvasive method using light transmission to estimate the thickness of ultra-thin, porous silicon membranes for lung-on-a-chip systems. By measuring light intensity and applying an exponential model, the technique avoids cutting or damaging the sample.

The 2025 Conference Across MRSEC-PREM Schools, organized by Texas State University’s PREM Center for Intelligent Materials Assembly and the University of Chicago MRSEC, will take place at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX on May 23-24, 2025. This conference is a student-led initiative to bring MRSEC-PREM students, faculty, and industry together to help improve students’ research, academic, and professional skills.

The Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Arlington invites applications for a tenure-track/tenured Assistant/Associate/Full Professor position whose scholarship focuses on one or more of the following research areas: (a) functional materials, (b) materials for energy, and (c) polymer materials.