Matteo Rinaldi
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Office
- 617.373.2751
Research Focus
Understanding and exploiting the fundamental properties of micro/nanomechanical structures and advanced nanomaterials to engineer new classes of micro and nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS) with unique and enabling features applied to the areas of chemical, physical and biological sensing and low power reconfigurable radio communication systems
About
Matteo Rinaldi received his first-level (B.S.) and second-level (M.Sc.) Laurea degrees in Electronic Engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy, in 2004 and 2007, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 2010. His research interests primarily include Micro/Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS) devices with particular emphasis on Aluminum Nitride (AlN) piezoelectric NEMS sensors for physical, chemical and biological detection, AlN Radio Frequency MEMS/NEMS devices, micro/nano fabrication techniques and integration of MEMS/NEMS devices with electronics. He has authored more than 20 publications in the aforementioned research areas and also holds 3 device patent applications in the field of micro/nano mechanical resonant devices.
Matteo Rinaldi was the recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the 2009 and 2011 IEEE International Frequency Control Symposiums. In March 2011 he was awarded with the S. J. Stein Prize for his superior achievements in the field of new or unique materials or applications for materials in electronics.
Matteo Rinaldi joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Northeastern University as an Assistant Professor in the Spring 2012 semester.
Honors & Awards
- Optica Fellow
- College of Engineering Faculty Fellow
- IEEE Sensors Council Early Career Award
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award
- NSF CAREER Award
Research Overview
Understanding and exploiting the fundamental properties of micro/nanomechanical structures and advanced nanomaterials to engineer new classes of micro and nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS) with unique and enabling features applied to the areas of chemical, physical and biological sensing and low power reconfigurable radio communication systems
Northeastern Sensors & Nano Systems Laboratory
In NS&NS Lab, we are working on the development of miniaturized, low-power and high-performance sensors and radio frequency components. We focus on understanding and exploiting the fundamental properties of micromechanical structures and advanced nanomaterials to engineer new classes of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) with unique and enabling features applied to the areas of chemical, physical and biological sensing and low power reconfigurable radio communication systems.
Selected Research Projects
- Cognitive Distributed Sensing in Congested Radio Frequency Environments
- – co-Principal Investigator, U.S. Army Research Laboratory
- Nano-opto-mechanical Piezoelectric Resonant Infrared-sensitive Metamaterials for Quantum-Limited Photodetection
- – Principal Investigator, DARPA
- High-Performance and Miniaturized Greenhouse Gas Sensor for Drone-based Remote Sensing
- – Principal Investigator, Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy
- CAREER: Nano Electro Mechanical Resonant Sensing Platform for Chip Scale, High Resolution and Ultra-Fast Terahertz Spectroscopy and Imaging
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Microelectromechanical Resonant Circulator (MIRC)
- – Principal Investigator, DARPA MTO SPAR Program
- Plasmonic Microelectromechanical Infrared Digitizer (PLASMID)
- – Principal Investigator, DARPA MTO N-Zero Program
- Zero Power Sensors (ZePS)
- – Principal Investigator, DARPA MTO N-Zero Program
Research Centers and Institutes
Director
Northeastern SMART Center
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Hui, Yu, Kang, Sungho, Qian, Zhenyun, Rinaldi, Matteo (2021). Uncooled Infrared Detector Based on an Aluminum Nitride Piezoelectric Fishnet Metasurface. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 30(1),165-172. 10.1109/JMEMS.2020.3040953
- Hussein, Hussein M. E., Ibrahim, Mahmoud A. A., Rinaldi, Matteo, Onabajo, Marvin, Cassella, Cristian (2021). Reflective Parametric Frequency-Selective Limiters With Sub-dB Loss and μWatts Power Thresholds. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 69(6),2989-3000. 10.1109/TMTT.2021.3072587
- Hussein, Hussein M. E., Rinaldi, Matteo, Onabajo, Marvin, Cassella, Cristian (2021). A chip-less and battery-less subharmonic tag for wireless sensing with parametrically enhanced sensitivity and dynamic range. Scientific Reports, 11(1). 10.1038/S41598-021-82894-X
- Calisgan, Sila Deniz, Rajaram, Vageeswar, Kang, Sungho, Risso, Antea, Qian, Zhenyun, Rinaldi, Matteo (2020). Micromechanical Switch-Based Zero-Power Chemical Detectors for Plant Health Monitoring. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 29(5),755-761. 10.1109/JMEMS.2020.3007309
- Chen, Guofeng, Rinaldi, Matteo (2020). Aluminum Nitride Combined Overtone Resonators for the 5G High Frequency Bands. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 29(2),148-159. 10.1109/JMEMS.2020.2975557
- Herrera, Bernard, Pop, Flavius, Cassella, Cristian, Rinaldi, Matteo (2020). Miniaturized PMUT-Based Receiver for Underwater Acoustic Networking. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 29(5),832-838. 10.1109/JMEMS.2020.3018070
- Hussein, Hussein M. E., Ibrahim, Mahmoud A. A., Michetti, Giuseppe, Rinaldi, Matteo, Onabajo, Marvin, Cassella, Cristian (2020). Systematic Synthesis and Design of Ultralow Threshold 2:1 Parametric Frequency Dividers. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 68(8),3497-3509. 10.1109/TMTT.2020.2999790
- Pop, Flavius, Herrera, Bernard, Cassella, Cristian, Rinaldi, Matteo (2020). Modeling and Optimization of Directly Modulated Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers. Sensors, 21(1),157. 10.3390/S21010157
- Pop, Flavius, Herrera, Bernard, Cassella, Cristian, Rinaldi, Matteo (2020). Enabling Real-Time Monitoring of Intrabody Networks through the Acoustic Discovery Architecture. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 67(11),2336-2344. 10.1109/TUFFC.2020.3002973
Nov 14, 2023
Rinaldi Selected as Optica Fellow
ECE Professor Matteo Rinaldi was selected as a Fellow of Optica (formerly OSA) for pioneering contributions to the research, development, and commercialization of zero-power wireless infrared sensors.
Sep 22, 2023
Creating New Sensor Technology
ECE Associate Professor Cristian Casella and Professor Matteo Rinaldi were awarded a patent for “Subharmonic tags for remote continuous and threshold sensing.”
May 24, 2023
Kostas Research Institute Receives $13M U.S. Army Contract for Wireless Research
The Kostas Research Institute (KRI) at Northeastern University has been awarded $13 million by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory for foundational research into Cognitive Distributed Sensing in Congested Radio Frequency Environments. KRI and five partner institutions will conduct innovative research to enable technologies in distributed machine learning, signal processing algorithms, and computational, sensing, and communication hardware infrastructure for distributed sensing and communication.
Apr 18, 2023
ECE PhD Student Awarded National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Research Fellowship
PhD student Jack Guida, electrical engineering, advised by Assistant Professor Siddharta Ghosh, was awarded a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Research Fellowship. He is researching microscale acoustics and integrated photonics as part of the Northeastern SMART research center.
Feb 14, 2023
$4 Million DARPA Grant for Ultra-Small, Fast, High-Resolution Infrared Sensors
Matteo Rinaldi, professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), and director of the Northeastern SMART research center, is leading a $4 million DARPA grant under the DARPA Optomechanical Thermal Imaging (OpTIm) program.
Jan 18, 2023
Designs for a Zero Power Plasmonic Microelectromechanical Device
ECE Professor Matteo Rinaldi and Research Assistant Professor Zhenyun Qian were awarded a patent for designing a “Zero power plasmonic microelectromechanical device.”
Sep 20, 2022
Northeastern in Top 100 Universities with U.S. Utility Patents
For the seventh consecutive year, Northeastern University has appeared in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) list of Top 100 Universities that were granted U.S. utility patents in 2021, cementing it as a world leader in academia and research.
Jul 06, 2022
Designing Microelectromechanical Tunable Delay Lines
ECE Professor Matteo Rinaldi was awarded a patent for “Microelectromechanical tunable delay line circuit.”
Jun 09, 2022
Monitoring Crop Fields with Zero-Power Sensors
ECE Professor Matteo Rinaldi and Research Assistant Professor Zhenyun Qian were awarded a patent for “Zero-power wireless chemical sensor for agricultural pests and disease monitoring.” Abstract Source: USPTO An ultra-miniaturized, low-cost, and maintenance-free chemical sensor is capable of continuously monitoring the concentration of specific volatile organic compound (VOC) vapors released from crop plants and green […]
May 18, 2022
Designing Adaptive Radio Frequency Filters
ECE Professor Matteo Rinaldi was awarded a patent for designing a “reconfigurable filter based on commutation of single frequency resonators.” Abstract Source: USPTO Adaptive RF filters based on modulated resonators are provided. The filter architecture is based on time-interleaved commutation of passive RF resonators. The architecture can behave as a two-port filter network, with a […]