Robin F.M. Martens

One day, we want to establish the relation between the manufacturing of the devices and the mechanical properties of thin films to improve manufacturability and performance of MEMS.

Robin Martens is a PhD student in the Mechanics of Materials (MoM) group at the Eindhoven University of Technology(TU/e) in the department of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include: experimental characterization of mechanical properties from the nano-to macro scale, residual stresses in thin-film deposition techniques, numerical modelling of MicroElectroMechanical systems (MEMS).

The goal of his PhD project is to accurately measure, understand and model the residual stress in a capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers(CMUT). A combined numerical/experimental approach is pursued, and the outcome of his PhD project will help to improve the acoustic performance of the ultra sound transducer.

Robin Martens began his bachelor Biomedical Engineering in 2012 at TU/e, broadening his knowledge by following courses given by different departments. In 2015, he continued with the master Biomedical engineering in the research group Cardiovascular Biomechanics (CVBM). The same year he went to Kungliga Tekniska högskolan (KTH) in Stockholm for his internship. The year after he combined his current master with the master Mechanical Engineering in the research group Mechanics of Materials. In 2018, he finished both masters by modeling the fluid-solid interaction of blood cells in extensional flow. He implemented therefore different stabilization techniques in the in-house developed Finite Element Method solver. After finishing its master, he continued with a PhD guided by Johan Hoefnagels, Olaf van der Sluis and Marc Geers. This PhD project is part of the Position II consortium which aims to enable a continuous and sustainable innovation in smart catheters in Europe, resulting in better treatments and a lower cost of healthcare.