Congratulations! Three Papers from Our Research Group Receive Best Paper Nominations at IEEE MEMS 2026

We are delighted and proud to announce that three papers from Prof. Yipeng Lu's research group at the School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, have been nominated for the Best Paper Award at the 39th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2026), held from January 25 to 29 in Salzburg, Austria. This exceptional recognition is a testament to the hard work, innovation, and excellence of our team. The nominated works span cutting-edge topics in piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs), each offering novel solutions and significant performance advancements: Nomination 1 "Anti-Phase Enhanced PMUT Supercell with Optimized Acoustic Coupling Engineering for High-Q and High-SPL Ultrasonic Applications" – Jinghan Gan, Xinyu Feng, Lei Zhao, Jiao Xia, Bowen Sheng, Yipeng Lu This work addresses the challenge of simultaneously achieving high quality factor (Q) and high sound pressure level (SPL) in PMUTs. By introducing an anti-phase enhanced supercell design with optimized acoustic coupling engineering, it achieves significantly improved Q and SPL performance. The paper appears in IEEE MEMS 2026, pp.34-37. Nomination 2 "Photoacoustic Cuffless Blood Pressure Monitoring: Alignment-Insensitive Diameter Sensing with a Single High-Sensitivity Sc₀.₃Al₀.₇N PMUT" – Yexing Fang, Lei Zhao, Mengyue Zhang, Zhiwei You, Xinyue Zhang, Xirui Zhao, Changhui Li, Bowen Sheng, Jinchi Han, Yipeng Lu This work addresses the critical need for continuous blood pressure monitoring by proposing a cuffless photoacoustic method that estimates arterial diameter from a single axial scan line, eliminating the need for array beamforming and tolerating millimeter-scale misalignment. A high-sensitivity Sc₀.₃Al₀.₇N PMUT was designed and integrated for weak signal detection, achieving in vitro dynamic pressure measurement with a 3.33 mmHg error, demonstrating great potential for future wearable, real-time BP monitoring. The paper appears in IEEE MEMS 2026, pp.1-4. Nomination 3 "Advanced Surface Sensing Based on Ultrasonic Guided-Wave and Pulse-Echo Using Wide-Bandwidth and High Acoustic Pressure PMUT Arrays" – Junhao Wang, Kai Yang, Chenyuan Zhang, Yufeng Gao, Jiao Xia, Xinyue Zhang, Bowen Sheng, Wei Wang, Yipeng Lu This work tackles the challenge of surface state detection, such as icing or liquid films, which is critical in aerospace, energy, and manufacturing. It introduces a dual-mode surface sensing approach using a single, broadband, high-acoustic-pressure PMUT array. The array combines guided-wave sensing for large-area inspection with pulse-echo techniques for precise, local thickness measurements, overcoming the limitations of traditional methods. The paper appears in IEEE MEMS 2026, pp.42-45. We extend our warmest congratulations to all the authors, and our sincere gratitude to our collaborators and supporting staff who made this possible. We look forward to many more exciting breakthroughs ahead.