Minmin Hou

Ph.D. Candidate, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University.
Researcher, Extreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory at Stanford led by Prof. Debbie G. Senesky.
Research Focuses: MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems), Sensors, Nano-technology

Technology enthusiast, excited about technological innovations in energy, digital life, IoT, Cloud, AI, robotics, and science.

Love nature, road trips, tennis.

Email: mmhou@stanford.edu  /  Resume  /  LinkedIn  

Gallium Nitride (GaN) MEMS Platform for Chemical Sensing in High Temperatures

Monitoring chemical signitures of high-temperature combustion and manufacturing processes will enable significant saving of energy and prediction of catastrophies. In this project, new MEMS device structures and high-temperature tolerant semiconductor materials are designed and modelled to overcome the reliability problems inherent to conventional designs. The GaN MEMS devices have been micro-fabricated in Stanford Nanofabrication Facility. Electrical and optical measurements have been conducted to characterize the performances of the fabricated devices.
[Publication]

High-Temperature Ohmic Contacts for Gallium Nitride Based Sensors and Electronics

Long-term thermal reliability of Ti/Al/Pt/Au ohmic contacts to GaN in an oxidizing ambient have been studied. Electrical characteristics of the metal contacts have been monitored over a long-term thermal storage test at 600C in air. Microstructures and chemical compositions of the metal contacts were probed before and after the thermal storage.
[Publication]

Biomedical Mixed Signal System Prototyping: ECG, ICG, PPG

Final project of Stanford EE 122B Introduction to Biomedical Electronics.
We prototyped an Arduino shield for measuring and displaying ECG (electrocardiogram), ICG (impedance cardiogram), and PPG (photo plethysmogram) signals from human body. Power isolation for safety, analog signal acquisition and conditioning, digital sampling, wireless communication, and digital filtering have been implemented. The cost of the components and printed circuit board in total is estimated to be about $35, which can be deployed in remote areas where sophisticated and bulky medical equipment is not applicable.
[Our design]

Mixed Signal Circuit System Prototyping: Automatic Guitar Tuner

Final project of Stanford EE 122A Analog Circuits Laboratory.
My team built a guitar string tuner with analog IC (integrated circuit) chips, passive components and an Arduino Uno microcontroller board.
[Our design]
[Video: tuning in action]

Infrastructure Technologies for Big Data

Final report of Stanford CS 309 Cloud Computing.
Technologies to tackle the volume, heterogeneity, processing speed and energy challenges of Big Data are surveyed and discussed in the report.
[Report can be shared upon request. Please send me an email and introduce yourself.]

UI design: HelpList

Project of Stanford CS 147 Introduction to Human Computer Interaction Design.
HelpList is designed for enhancing interativity in large college lectures. The user interfaces for HelpList were designed through user-centered design iterations that involved need-finding, design sketches, concept video, low-fidelity prototype and user testing, medium-fidelity prototype and heuristic eveluation, and high-fidelity prototype implementation.
[Learn more about the project]

Business Strategy Recommendation: Microsoft

Final project of Stanford EE 204 Business Management for EE and CS.
Strategy recommendations to Microsoft board of directors on how to tackle the challenges faced by Microsoft in the mobile-first and cloud-first world.
My report got 20+ out of 20, and was the top paper of the class.
[Report can be shared upon request. Please send me an email and introduce yourself.]

Forecasting: Augmented-Reality Jewelry

Final project of Stanford ME 297 Forecasting for Innovators.
Forecast future innovations based on technological, cultural and ecnomical development trajectories. I proposed the use cases of AR jewelry, investigated the underlying technologies (where they are today and where they could be in 5-15 years), and forecast a technology roadmap for AR jewelry.
[Report can be shared upon request. Please send me an email and introduce yourself.]

Analog IC Design: Transimpedance Amplifer for Photodetectors

Final project of Stanford EE 214 Fundamentals of Analog Integrated Circuit Design.
Designed and simulated a high-gain high-bandwidth MOSFET transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for amplifying photo currents from optical fibers.
[Report can be shared upon request. Please send me an email and introduce yourself.]

Neural Signal Processing: Seizure Detection

Bachelor thesis project.
Designed and simulated a signal processing algorithm for identifying patients with seizures based on feature extraction and principal component analysis (PCA) of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals.
[Abstract can be shared upon request. Please send me an email and introduce yourself.]

Journal Articles

[1] M. Hou, H. So, A.J. Suria, A.S. Yalamarthy, and D.G. Senesky, “Suppression of persistent photoconductivity in AlGaN/GaN ultraviolet photodetectors using in-situ heating,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, 38 (1), pp.56-59, 2017.
[2] M. Hou and D.G. Senesky, “Operation of ohmic Ti/Al/Pt/Au multilayer contacts to gallium nitride at 600C in air,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 105, 081905, 2014.
[3] H. So, M. Hou, S.R. Jain, J. Lim, and D.G. Senesky, "Interdigitated Pt-GaN Schottky interfaces for high-temperature soot-particulate sensing," Applied Surface Science, vol. 368, pp.104-109, 2016.

Conference Proceedings

[1] M. Hou, A.J. Suria, A.S. Yalamarthy, and D.G. Senesky, “2DEG-Heated AlGaN/GaN Micro-Hotplates for High-Temperature Chemical Sensing Microsystems”, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Workshop, Hilton Head, SC, 2016.
[2] M. Hou, C. Pan, M. Asheghi, D.G. Senesky, “Finite Element Thermal Analysis of Localized Heating of AlGaN/GaN HEMT Based Sensors”, in Proc. the Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems 2014.
[3] H. C. Chiamori, M. Hou, C. A. Chapin, A. Shankar, D.G. Senesky, “Characterization of Gallium Nitride Microsystems within Radiation and High-temperature Environments”, in Proceeding of SPIE on Reliability, Packaging, Testing, and Characterization of MOEMS/MEMS, Nanodevices, and Nanomaterials, 2014, vol. 8975, pp. 897507-1 – 897507-8.

[4] C. A. Chapin, H. C. Chiamori, M. Hou, and D. G. Senesky, “Characterization of Gallium Nitride Heterostructures for Strain Sensing at Elevated Temperatures,” in International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring, 2013, vol. 9, pp. 1621–1628.