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This paper reports on the wafer-scale integration of pre-strained SMA wires to microstructured silicon devices and the performance of the microactuator prototypes. The overall goal is to obtain low cost microactuators having high work densities and a mass production compatible manufacturing, without having to deal with the inherently high costs of a pick-and-place approach or with the complex composition...
This paper reports on the extension of the wafer-scale microtensile technique to the piezoresistive characterization of thin-films, demonstrated for in-situ n-doped poly-Si layers. In addition to the reliable extraction of mechanical properties, this extended high-throughput method enables the acquisition of linear and, for the first time, nonlinear piezoresistive coefficients, namely the first and...
Mechanical response of high-thermally-stable-grade parylene (diX-SR/HR) is investigated for flexible spring applications. Pendulum structures with a high-aspect-ratio beam are microfabricated using different parylene materials, and their amplitude and stress at resonant oscillation are measured. Based on fatigue tests and measurements of the temperature coefficient of Young's modulus, MEMS structures...
The presented process technology enables the fabrication of 3D high-aspect-ratio microstructures featuring the integration of multiple materials. The technology offers the possibility to benefit from unique material properties for optimized MEMS functionality and performance. The fabrication process relies on wafer stacking by low temperature plasma activated direct bonding, SOI layer transfer and...
We have successfully demonstrated the fabrication of biodegradable and magnetic microcapsules utilizing PDMS double emulsification devices. Specially designed 3D microfluidic channels with surface modified by a self-aligned photo-grafting process are employed to shape immiscible fluids into monodisperse W/O/W emulsions. By varying the outer and inner fluid flow-rates, the overall and core sizes of...
We report for the first time a facile lithography-free approach for fabricating nanopillars over large areas or in patterns. The key technique of this approach is that randomly-distributed nanoscale SiO2 patterns can be synthesized on substrates simply by removing photoresist with oxygen plasma bombardment. Those SiO2 nanopatterns may further function as masks in the following etching process for...
We present a technique to achieve high-purity isolation of the target species in electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD)-based droplet microfluidics by forming a long and slender liquid path between droplets that acts as a "conduit" for actively transported target species, while minimizing non-specific transport due to diffusion and fluidic movement. By stabilizing the conduit chemically (e...
We present a thermal flow sensor that is suitable for measuring nasal respiration. To fix the flow sensor inside the nasal passage, we integrated it onto a stent structure, which is normally used as a medical device. The sensor was monolithically integrated on the Ti substrate by applying photolithography and wet etching processes. The developed fabrication has advantage that it is able to fabricate...
The paper presents a thermo-optic tunable laser that makes use of a micromachined etalon to form the external cavity. The wavelength tuning is obtained by the thermo-optic effect of the silicon material. In experiment, a wavelength tuning range of 14 nm is demonstrated by applying a heating current of 18.7 mA to a deep-etched silicon etalon of 206 mum wide. In the dynamic test, this laser measures...
In this paper, we present a stretchable electrode array for studying cell behavior subjected to mechanical strain. The electrode array consists of four gold nail-head pins (250 mum tip diameter and 1.75 mm spacing) inserted into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) platform (25.4times25.4 mm2). Fusible indium alloy (liquid at room temperature) filled microchannels are used to connect the electrodes to the...
We developed a method to prepare size-and shape-controlled islet-cell spheroids. We cultured beta-cell line (MIN6-m9) in PDMS-microwells and enabled to construct their spheroids with the various sizes corresponding to those of the microwells. We demonstrated the geometric analysis of insulin secretion of the cells in the spheroids. We found that these spheroids respond to glucose and subsequently...
This paper presents a new method using a polymer material to generate optically-induced dielectrophoretic (ODEP) forces for particle manipulation. Instead of using the common material such as amorphous silicon, a polymer (P3HT/PCBM) which has excellent light absorption, was used in this study. Without using delicate and high-temperature thin-film process, the entire fabrication process was performed...
A self-resonant flow sensor using resonance frequency shift by the flow-induced vibration is presented. All of MEMS-based flow sensors have measured thermal flux, mechanical strain, capacitance, and so on. In this paper, we used self-resonant vibration induced by a fluid flow and resonant frequency shift by a surface stress on the cantilever beam due to fluid drag force in order to measure mass flow...
This paper reports a simple, low-cost preparation method for fabricating a thin hot-film flow sensing system directly on a flexible polyimide Printed Circuit Board (PCB) by incorporating printed circuit technique with micromachining process. The sensor system takes merits of simple structure, low cost, easy fabrication and packaging, integrating sensors with processing circuits, good mechanical property...
This paper presents a new low-cost, CMOS-compatible and robust wafer-level encapsulation technique developed using a stress-optimised PECVD SiC as the capping and sealing material, imparting harsh environment capability. This technique has been applied for the fabrication and encapsulation of a wide variety of surface- and thin-SOI microstructures that included microcavities, RF switches and various...
This is the first report on a nanofibrous surface patterning process using nano-meshed polymer microcapsules for biological applications. The nano-meshed microcapsules were formed using a method named phase separation assisted electrospray. Features of the nano-meshed microcapsules were found to be tunable by adjusting process conditions. Contrary to non-woven mats formed of continuous nanofibers...
Precise titration using sub-picoliter droplet injection microfluidic system is proposed. This system can to measure less than 1 picoliter of reagent and to deliver to the micro chamber without diffusion which becomes major concern when the reagent volume is smaller. A prototype device can generate a droplet of 0.8 picoliter (800 femtoliter) in the metering channel of 40 mum times 5 mum times 4 mum,...
In this paper, a bulk micromachined lateral axis TFG (tuning fork gyroscope) with torsional sensing comb capacitors is presented. Both driving and sensing modes of the gyroscope are dominated by slide film air damping, then it can work even at atmosphere. Novel driving comb capacitors are used to electrically decouple the mechanical coupling from sensing mode to driving mode. The process for this...
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