Table of contents

In lab-on-a-chip (LoC) devices, microfluidic displacement of liquids is a key component. electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) is a technique to move fluids, with the advantage of not requiring channels, pumps or valves. Fluids are discretized into droplets on microelectrodes and moved by applying an electric field via the electrodes to manipulate the contact angle. Micro-objects, such as biological cells, can be transported inside of these droplets. However, the design of conventional microelectrodes, made by standard micro-fabrication techniques, fixes the path of the droplets, and limits the reconfigurability of paths and thus limits the parallel processing of droplets. In that respect, thin film transistor (TFT) technology presents a great opportunity as it allows infinitely reconfigurable paths, with high parallelizability. We propose here to investigate the possibility of using TFT array devices for high throughput cell manipulation using EWOD. A COMSOL based 2D simulation coupled with a MATLAB algorithm was used to simulate the contact angle modulation, displacement and mixing of droplets. These simulations were confirmed by experimental results. The EWOD technique was applied to a droplet of culture medium containing HepG2 carcinoma cells and demonstrated no negative effects on the viability of the cells. This confirms the possibility of applying EWOD techniques to cellular applications, such as parallel cell analysis.

Nozzles with large and small dimensions are widely used in various industries. The main objective of this research is to investigate the effects of dimensional size and surface roughness on the service performance of a micro Laval nozzle. The variation of nozzle service performance from the conventional macro to micro scale is presented in this paper. This shows that the dimensional nozzle size has a serious effect on the nozzle gas flow friction. With the decrease of nozzle size, the velocity performance and thrust performance deteriorate. The micro nozzle performance has less sensitivity to the variation of surface roughness than the large scale nozzle does. Surface quality improvement and burr prevention technologies are proposed to reduce the friction effect on the micro nozzle performance. A novel process is then developed to control and depress the burr generation during micro nozzle machining. The polymethyl-methacrylate as a coating material is coated on the rough machined surface before finish machining. Finally, the micro nozzle with a throat diameter of 1 mm is machined successfully. Thrust test results show that the implement and application of this machining process benefit the service performance improvement of the micro nozzle.

In this paper, high on/off capacitance ratio radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical-systems (RF MEMS) switches are designed, fabricated, measured and analyzed. Two types of RF MEMS switches, a shunt switch with a contact point and an inline switch without a contact point, are presented. Metal–insulator–metal (MIM) fixed capacitors are used in the MEMS switches. The electrode topologies of RF MEMS switches are analyzed. The parameter λ is defined to describe the relationship between the capacitance ratio, the height of the beam and the actuation voltage. The measured results indicate that, for MEMS switch #1 with a contact point and gap of 1 µm, the insertion loss is better than 0.64 dB up to 40 GHz, and the isolation is more than 20 dB from 11.28 to 30.38 GHz with an actuation voltage of 42 V. For the inline MEMS with a displacement of 1.5 µm, the insertion loss is better than 0.56 dB up to 40 GHz, and the isolation is more than 20 dB from 4.45 to 30.48 GHz with an actuation voltage of 36 V. Circuit models and measured results of the proposed MEMS switches show good agreement. From the fitted results, the on/off capacitance ratio is ~227 for the MEMS switch #1 and ~313 for the MEMS switch #2, respectively. Compared with traditional MEMS capacitive switches with dielectric material Si₃N₄ and a relatively lower gap (1.5 µm), the proposed MEMS switches exhibit high on/off capacitance ratios.

In this paper, a liquid crystal microlens array with a curved electrode is designed and fabricated. The fabrication process consists of two parts: fabricating the microlens array and assembling the liquid crystal cell. The first process utilizes the hydrophilic confinement effect, an inkjet printer, and the replication process to fabricate a microlens array on a glass substrate. A transparent, organic, conductive poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is spin-coated on the microlens array as a curved electrode, and the microlens array is further flattened by SU-8 photoresist. It is then assembled with indium tin oxide glass. Interference patterns for the liquid crystal microlens array are measured and agree well with theoretical calculations. From interference patterns, the focusing power range is measured to be from  −47.28 to  −331 diopters under 10 V, which corresponds to focal length from  −2.12 cm to  −0.3 cm at 532 nm wavelength. This technology could be useful for optical zoom systems or focus-tunable lens applications.

In this study, we created high-aspect-ratio microgrooves in hard, brittle materials using an electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) process by introducing microtextured machining tool. To enhance the electrical discharge activity, the morphology of the tool side surface was treated via micro-electrical discharge machining to produce fine microprotrusive patterns. The resulting microtextured surface morphology enhanced the electric field and played a key role in improving the step milling depth in the ECDM process. Using the FEM analysis, the evaluation of the field enhancement factor is also addressed. Our experimental investigation revealed microgrooves having an aspect ratio of 1:4, with high geometric accuracy and crack-free surfaces, using one-step ECDM.

A planar thermoelectric device with 20 pairs of Sb₂Te₃ and Bi₂Te₃ thin-film legs was fabricated by using a facile self-aligned shadow mask method in combination with a thermal evaporation process. Effects of substrate temperature during the evaporation process on the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity of the thin films have been investigated. The maximum Seebeck coefficient was found to be 158 µV K⁻¹ for the Sb₂Te₃ film produced at 260 °C and  −148 µV K⁻¹ for the Bi₂Te₃ film produced at 230 °C. The device was fabricated on a glass substrate under the above optimal conditions. At a temperature difference of 90 K, it demonstrated an open-circuit voltage of more than 0.5 V (which was equivalent of a sensitivity of 5.40 mV K⁻¹) and a maximum output power of 1.105 µW.

On-chip integrability of high-Q RF passives alongside CMOS transistors is crucial for the implementation of monolithic radio transceivers. One of the most significant bottlenecks in back-end-of-line (BEoL) integration of MEMS devices on CMOS processed wafers is their relatively low thermal budget, which is less than that required for typical MEMS material deposition processes. This paper investigates electroplated nickel as a structural material for piezoelectrically-transduced resonators to demonstrate ZnO-on-nickel resonators with a CMOS-compatible low temperature process for the first time. Aside from the obvious manufacturing cost benefit, electroplated nickel is a reasonable substitute for polycrystalline or single crystal silicon and thin-film microcrystalline diamond device layers, while realizing decent acoustic velocity and moderate Q. Electroplated nickel has been already adopted by MEMSCAP, a multi-user MEMS process foundry, in its MetalMUMPs process. Furthermore, it is observed that a localized annealing process through Joule heating can be exploited to significantly improve the effective mechanical quality factor for the ZnO-on-nickel resonators, which is still lower than the reported AlN resonators. This work demonstrates ZnO-on-nickel piezoelectrically-actuated MEMS resonators and resonator arrays by using an IC compatible low temperature process. There is room for performance improvement by lowering the acoustic energy losses in the ZnO and nickel layers.

A method for patterning micro-scale features in a poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) film for engineering applications has been developed. Because PAA is a water-soluble polymer, careful attention has to be given during the development portion of the photolithographic process. To obtain well-defined patterns, development time was reduced by half following a regular photolithography exposure step. The remaining photoresist, and the PAA underneath it, were removed using a plasma ash process. After stripping the photoresist, polygonal windows such as triangles, rectangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, and octagons were created. This plasma ash process for patterning micro-scale features in PAA holds potential for fabrication of polymer microstructures, sacrificial layer micromolding, and patterned substrate micromolding. As a proof of concept, we applied these patterns to a solder-based self-assembly process to form 3D polyhedra.

In this paper, we introduce a novel and simple method to fabricate a preconcentrator based on the ion concentration polarization phenomenon (ICP). Using a three-dimensional printed layer, the microchannels could be easily integrated with an ion exchange membrane which plays the role of the nanoporous junction needed for ICP. To demonstrate the preconcentration ability of the devices, we conducted experiments with negatively charged fluorescein sodium and positively charged rhodamine 6G. As a result, the negatively charged sample could be preconcentrated more than 18 fold by using a cation exchange membrane. The positively charged sample could be preconcentrated more than 40 fold by using an anion exchange membrane. This preconcentrator with a simple fabrication process could be implemented in various microfluidic systems for biochemical assays.

A pinched flow fractionation device with trapezoid-shaped pinched segment and cross-flow side channels (t-PFF-v) was redesigned and fabricated with a one-stop anisotropic chemical wet etching process and its enhanced separation capability was demonstrated for spherical polystyrene (PS) particles with diameter ranges of 2–8 µm. The tilted sidewalls and vertical focusing channels of the t-PFF-v device led to an improved separation resolution (R_m,n) via enhanced separation distance of PS particles at the pinched segment (Δx_m,n) and reduced effluent particle distribution width (s_n). Using this t-PFF-v device with W_p (pinched segment width) of 25 µm, PS particles with diameters of 4, 6, and 8 µm were simultaneously separated with good separation resolution (R_4,6  =  3.2 and R_6,8  =  3.4). Moreover, by adapting even smaller pinched segment width (W_p  =  15 µm), PS particles with diameters of 2 and 4 µm, not well separated in the previous studies, were clearly separated with 9.5-fold improvement in R_2,4 compared with the normal PFF device (n-PFF). The effects of inlet flow rate ratio (Q₂/Q₁) on the separation efficiency were also carefully investigated and provided additional insight on the separation processes within the pinched segment of t-PFF-v device. The drain flow through the cross-flow v-channels helps better alignment of particles at the sidewall of pinched segment and resulted in significantly reduced distribution of effluent particles, even under the operating conditions with low Q₂/Q₁ values.

Recent studies have demonstrated mode localized resonant micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) sensing devices with orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity. Avoided crossings or eigenvalue veering is the physical mechanism exploited to achieve the enhancement in sensitivity of devices operating either in vacuum or in air. The mode localized MEMS devices are typically designed to be symmetric and use gap-varying electrostatic springs to couple motions of two or more resonators. The role of asymmetry in the design of devices and its influence on sensitivity is not fully understood. Furthermore, gap-varying electrostatic springs suffer from nonlinearities when gap variation between coupling plates becomes large due to mode localization, imposing limitations on the device performance. To address these shortcomings, this contribution has two principal objectives. The first objective is to critically assess the role of asymmetry in the device design and operation. We show, based on energy analysis, that carefully designed asymmetry in devices can lead to even higher sensitivities than reported in the literature. Our second objective is to design and implement linear, tunable, electrostatic springs, using shaped combs, which allow large vibration amplitudes of resonators thereby increasing the signal to noise ratio. We experimentally demonstrate linear electrostatic coupling in a two oscillator device. Our study suggests that a future avenue for progress in the mode localized resonant sensing technology is to combine asymmetric devices with tunable linear coupling designs.

Monopropellant ceramic microthrusters with an integrated heater, catalytic bed and two temperature sensors, but of various designs, were manufactured by milling a fluidic channel and chamber, and a nozzle, and screen printing platinum patterns on green tapes of alumina that were stacked and laminated before sintering. In order to increase the surface area of the catalytic bed, the platinum paste was mixed with a sacrificial paste that disappeared during sintering, to leave behind a porous and rough layer. As an early development level in manufacturing robust and high-temperature tolerant microthrusters, the influence of design on the temperature gradients and dry temperature tolerance of the devices was studied. On average, the small reaction chambers showed a more than 1.5 times higher dry temperature tolerance (in centigrade) compared to devices with larger chambers, independent of the heater and device size. However, for a given temperature, big devices consumed on average 2.9 times more power than the small ones. It was also found that over the same area and under the same heating conditions, devices with small chambers were subjected to approximately 40% smaller temperature differences. A pressure test done on two small devices with small chambers revealed that pressures of at least 26.3 bar could be tolerated. Above this pressure, the interfaces failed but the devices were not damaged. To investigate the cooling effect of the micropropellant, the endurance of a full thruster was also studied under wet testing where it was fed with 31 wt.% hydrogen peroxide. The thruster demonstrated complete evaporation and/or full decomposition at a power above 3.7 W for a propellant flow of 50 µl min⁻¹. At this power, the catalytic bed locally reached a temperature of 147 °C. The component was successfully heated to an operating temperature of 307 °C, where it cracked. Under these firing conditions, and assuming complete decomposition, calculations give a thrust and specific impulse of 0.96 mN and 106 s, respectively. In the case of evaporation, the corresponding values are calculated to be 0.84 mN and 92 s.

The development of micro lens arrays has garnered much interest due to increased demand of miniaturized systems. Traditional methods for manufacturing micro lens arrays have several shortcomings. For example, they require expensive facilities and long lead time, and traditional lens materials (i.e. glass) are typically heavy, costly and difficult to manufacture. In this paper, we explore a method for manufacturing a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micro lens array using a simple spin coating technique. The micro lens array, formed under an interfacial tension dominated system, and the influence of material properties and process parameters on the fabricated lens shape are examined. The lenses fabricated using this method show comparable optical properties—including surface finish and image quality—with a reduced cost and manufacturing lead time.

We have demonstrated the fabrication of two types of thermal flow sensors with Cu-rich and Cu₂O-rich microheaters using femtosecond laser-induced reduction of CuO nanoparticles. The microheaters in the shape of microbridge structures were formed to thermally isolate from the substrates by four layer-by-layer laminations of two-dimensional micropatterns. First, we evaluated the patterning properties such as dispensing coating conditions and degree of reduction for the selective fabrication of three-dimensional Cu-rich and Cu₂O-rich microstructures. Then, a hot-film flow sensor with a Cu-rich microheater and a calorimetric flow sensor with a Cu₂O-rich microheater were fabricated using their respective appropriate laser irradiation conditions. The hot-film sensor with the Cu-rich microbridge single heater enabled us to measure the flow rate in a wide range of 0–450 cc min⁻¹. Although a large temperature dependence of the Cu₂O-rich microbridge heaters caused a large error for the hot-film flow sensors with single heaters, they showed higher heat-resistance and generated heat with a lower drive power. The temperature coefficient of resistance of the Cu₂O-rich microstructures had a semiconductor-like large absolute value and was less than  −4.6  ×  10⁻⁸ °C⁻¹. The higher temperature sensitivity of the Cu₂O-rich microstructures was useful for thermal detection. Based on these advantages, a calorimetric flow sensor composed of the Cu₂O-rich microbridge single heater and two Cu₂O-rich thermal detectors was proposed and fabricated. The calorimetric flow sensor was driven by a circuit for measuring the temperature difference. The Cu₂O-rich flow sensor could detect bi-directional flow with a small output error.

This paper describes major contributions to a MEMS magnetic field gradient sensor. An H-shaped structure supported by four arms with two circuit paths on the surface is designed for measuring two components of the magnetic flux density and one component of the gradient. The structure is produced from silicon wafers by a dry etching process. The gold leads on the surface carry the alternating current which interacts with the magnetic field component perpendicular to the direction of the current. If the excitation frequency is near to a mechanical resonance, vibrations with an amplitude within the range of 1–10³ nm are expected. Both theoretical (simulations and analytic calculations) and experimental analysis have been carried out to optimize the structures for different strength of the magnetic gradient. In the same way the impact of the coupling structure on the resonance frequency and of different operating modes to simultaneously measure two components of the flux density were tested. For measuring the local gradient of the flux density the structure was operated at the first symmetrical and the first anti-symmetrical mode. Depending on the design, flux densities of approximately 2.5 µT and gradients starting from 1 µT mm⁻¹ can be measured.

In this paper, we present an improved method to bond poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) with polyimide (PI) to develop flexible substrate microfluidic devices. The PI film was separately fabricated on a silicon wafer by spin coating followed by thermal treatment to avoid surface unevenness of the flexible substrate. In this way, we could also integrate flexible substrate into standard micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication. Meanwhile, the adhesive epoxy was selectively transferred to the PDMS microfluidic device by a stamp-and-stick method to avoid epoxy clogging the microfluidic channels. To spread out the epoxy evenly on the transferring substrate, we used superhydrophilic vanadium oxide film coated glass as the transferring substrate. After the bonding process, the flexible substrate could easily be peeled off from the rigid substrate. Contact angle measurement was used to characterize the hydrophicity of the vanadium oxide film. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis was conducted to study the surface of the epoxy. We further evaluated the bonding quality by peeling tests, which showed a maximum bonding strength of 100 kPa. By injecting with black ink, the plastic microfluidic device was confirmed to be well bonded with no leakage for a day under 1 atm. This proposed versatile method could bond the microfluidic device and plastic substrate together and be applied in the fabrication of some biosensors and lab-on-a-chip systems.

A novel continuous flow microfluidic device, integrated with soft-magnetic wire (permalloy), is fabricated and tested for magnetophoresis based separation. The flow-invasive permalloy wire, magnetized using an external bias field, is positioned perpendicular to the external magnetic field and with its length traversing the introduced sample flow. The microfluidic device is realized in PDMS; the mold for PDMS microstructures is cut out of Plexiglas^® sheets with controllable dimensions. Microfluidic devices with microchannel height ranging between 0.5 mm and 2 mm are fabricated. Experiments are carried out with and without sheath flow; with sheath flow the microparticles are focused at the center of the microchannel.

When focusing is not employed, the microdevice can exhibit a complete separation (or filtration) with the introduction of the sample at rates lower than a maximum threshold. However, this complete separation is attributed to the fact that part of the particles, once they approach the repulsive field of the wire, will find their way into the attractive region of the wire while the remaining will be indefinitely trapped at the channel walls. On the other hand, when the focused sample is flowing at the same rate but alongside an appropriate sheath flow, the complete separation can be achieved with all (initially repelled) particles being captured on the attractive region of the wire itself.

This microdevice design is well suited for purification, enrichment, and detection of microparticles in lab-on-a-chip devices due to its ability to handle high throughput without compromising capture efficiency while exhibiting excellent reliability and flexibility.

A film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) is a type of resonator with high frequency and small dimensions, particularly suitable for use as a sensor for physical and biochemical sensing with high sensitivity. FBAR-based sensors have been extensively studied, however they commonly use discrete devices and network analyzers for evaluation, and therefore are far from being able to be used in practical applications. This paper reports the design and analysis of an FBAR-based Pierce oscillator and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based frequency counter, and the use of the oscillator as a humidity sensor with the frequency counter as the measuring circuit. Graphene oxide (GO) is used as the sensitive film to improve the sensitivity. The resonant frequency of the oscillator with a GO film shows a linear decrease with an increase in relative humidity, with a sensitivity of ca. 5 kHz per %RH (relative humidity) in the range of 3%RH to 70%RH, and a higher frequency shift is induced above 70%RH. The FBAR oscillator sensor shows excellent stability and repeatability, demonstrating the feasibility and potential sensing application using the integrated FBAR chip and simple frequency counter, particularly suitable for portable electronics.

A method called 'soft thermal printing' (STP) was developed to ensure the optimal transfer of 50 µm-thick dry epoxy resist films (DF-1050) on small-sized samples. The aim was the uniform fabrication of high aspect ratio polymer-based MOEMS (micro-optical-electrical-mechanical system) on small and/or fragile samples, such as GaAs. The printing conditions were optimized, and the resulting thickness uniformity profiles were compared to those obtained via lamination and SU-8 standard spin-coating. Under the best conditions tested, STP and lamination produced similar results, with a maximum deviation to the central thickness of 3% along the sample surface, compared to greater than 40% for SU-8 spin-coating. Both methods were successfully applied to the collective fabrication of DF1050-based MOEMS designed for the dynamic focusing of VCSELs (vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers). Similar, efficient electro-thermo-mechanical behaviour was obtained in both cases.

This paper presents a preliminary result about ultra-deep etched microstructures on 〈1 0 0〉 silicon wafer based on metal assisted chemical etching (MaCE). Honeycomb hole arrays with 50 µm width were successfully etched, as deep as 280 µm. The porous defects on the patterned surface and the lateral etching on the sidewall were effectively suppressed by optimizing the etchant solution. The results in this paper indicate that 〈1 0 0〉 silicon can be etched vertically with smooth sidewalls by an etchant solution containing ethanol, instead of the conventional aqueous-based solution. This improved method of MaCE has potential application in large-scale Si etching as a supplementary method to the expensive and complicated dry etching method.

Wax printing has become a common method of fabricating channels in cellulose-based microfluidic devices. However, a limitation of wax printing is that it is restricted to relatively thin, smooth substrates that are compatible with processing by a commercial wax printer. In the current report, we describe a simple patterning method that extends the utility of wax printers for creating hydrophobic barriers on non-standard porous substrates via a process called wax transfer printing. We demonstrate the use of multiple wax transfer cycles to create well-defined, robust, and reproducible barriers in a thick cellulose substrate that is not compatible with feeding through a wax printer. We characterize the method for (i) wax spreading within the substrate as a function of heating time, (ii) the ability to create functional barriers in a substrate, and (iii) reproducibility in line width.