[en] A homogeneous, micrometer-sized conical surface texture forms on 2% Be-Cu alloy which is bombarded with an argon beam produced by a Kaufman ion source. The dimensions of the features that form depend strongly on argon energy (from 250 to 1500 eV); argon fluence (10¹⁹ to 10²⁰ ions cm^-2); and argon flux (0.1 to 1 mA cm^-2). The texture morphology depends less strongly on the background ambient (Mo versus graphite), earlier alloy heat treatments and the temperature during bombardment (100^oC and 450^oC). As the texture matures with increasing fluence, the number of large features increases at the expense of the number of small features. The observed relationship between texture formation and ion flux suggests that the evolution of these features is not adequately described by theories predicting that the mature conical side-wall angle is related to the angle of the maximum sputtering yield. These textured surfaces can be coated with other metals for a variety of possible applications including pulsed power Li + beam anodes; cold cathode field emission devices; optical absorbers and catalysis supports. (author)

[en] Manipulation of liquids at the lowest levels of volume and dimension is at the forefront of materials science, chemistry and medicine, offering important time and resource saving applications. However, manipulation by mixing is troublesome at the microliter and lower scales. One approach to overcome this problem is to use passive mixers, which exploit structural obstacles within microfluidic channels or the geometry of channels themselves to enforce and enhance fluid mixing. Some applications require the manipulation and mixing of aggressive substances, which makes conventional microfluidic materials, along with their fabrication methods, inappropriate. In this work, implementation of an optimized full scale three port microfluidic mixer is presented in a slide of a material that is very hard to process but possesses extreme chemical and physical resistance—alumina. The viability of the selected femtosecond laser fabrication method as an alternative to conventional lithography methods, which are unable to process this material, is demonstrated. For the validation and optimization of the microfluidic mixer, a finite element method (FEM) based numerical modeling of the influence of the mixer geometry on its mixing performance is completed. Experimental investigation of the laminar flow geometry demonstrated very good agreement with the numerical simulation results. Such a laser ablation microfabricated passive mixer structure is intended for use in a capillary force assisted nanoparticle assembly setup (CAPA). (paper)

[en] Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are intrinsically light-weight, compliant and therefore ideal to directly interact with humans and be implemented into wearable robotic devices. However, they also pose new challenges in describing and sensing their continuous deformation. In this paper, we propose a hybrid actuator design with bio-inspirations from the lobsters, which can generate reconfigurable bending movements through the internal soft chamber interacting with the external rigid shells. This design with joint and link structures enables us to exactly track its bending configurations that previously posed a significant challenge to soft robots. Analytic models are developed to illustrate the soft-rigid interaction mechanism with experimental validation. A robotic glove using hybrid actuators to assist grasping is assembled to illustrate their potentials in safe human-robot interactions. Considering all the design merits, our work presents a practical approach to the design of next-generation robots capable of achieving both good accuracy and compliance. (paper)

[en] In this paper, a test structure for simultaneously determining thermal conductivity and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of polysilicon thin film is proposed. The test structure consists of two double-clamped beams with different lengths. A theoretical model for extracting thermal conductivity and CTE based on electrothermal analysis and resonance frequency approach is developed. Both flat and buckled beams are considered in the theoretical model. The model is confirmed by finite element software ANSYS. The test structures are fabricated by surface micromachined fabrication process. Experiments are carried out in our atmosphere. Thermal conductivity and CTE of polysilicon thin film are obtained to be (29.96  ±  0.92) W · m · K⁻¹ and (2.65  ±  0.03)  ×  10⁻⁶ K⁻¹, respectively, with temperature ranging from 300–400 K. (paper)

[en] We find the nanoscale steps on Si (1 1 1) surface can influence the self-catalyzed position-controlled InAs nanowire growth by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The nanoscale steps, made of the photoresist residues induced by incomplete-development after electron beam lithography, show a strong effect on the size and density of InAs nanowire nucleation. The phenomena are explained by a proposed model that the nanoscale steps on Si (1 1 1) surface can block the diffusion of Indium atoms thus influencing the formation of Indium droplets. Our result is helpful for understanding the growing mechanism and growing InAs nanowires with precise position-control. (paper)

[en] We demonstrate a facile non-catalytic method of fabricating silica nanowires at room temperature. Different polymers including photoresists, parylene C and polystyrene are patterned into pedestals on the silicon substrates. The silica nanowires are obtained via the oxygen plasma treatment on those pedestals. Compared to traditional strategies of silica nanowire fabrication, this method is much simpler and low-cost. Through designing the proper initial patterns and plasma process parameters, the method can be used to fabricate various regiment nano-scale silica structure arrays in any laboratory with a regular oxygen-plasma-based cleaner or reactive-ion-etching equipment. (paper)

[en] The precision cutting of brittle materials requires the accumulation of nanoscale cut depth for ductile-mode removal without any micro-cracks, leading to inefficiency. Hence, a rapid cutting of brittle material is proposed through the micro-crack propagation along micro-crater tips on workpiece surface. The objective is to understand the feasibility of micro-crack induced cutting for various difficult-cut materials such as 4H-SiC, sapphire and Si. First, a diamond cone micro-tip was used to fabricate the tetrahedral micro-crater array; then the cutting force was modelled in micro-crack induced cutting; finally, the cutting performance was evaluated. It is shown that the indentation force ranging from 0.1–10 N produces the integrated micro-cracks along micro-crater tips. An increase in the micro-crack length leads to a decrease in cutting force and cutting time and an increase in cut form error. Moreover, the micro-crack propagation is little related to the crystal orientation. Unexpectedly, the cutting force, the cutting time and the cut form error for the hardest 4H-SiC was less than the ones for sapphire and Si, respectively. Its precision and mirror cutting efficiency reaches 10 mm² s⁻¹ with the micro-indentation time of 12 s. The indentation force related to micro-crack propagation may be used to predict and control the micro-crack induced cutting performance. (paper)

[en] Eye fatigue is a symptom induced by long-term work of both eyes and brains. Without proper treatment, eye fatigue may incur serious problems. Current studies on detecting eye fatigue mainly focus on computer vision detect technology which can be very unreliable due to occasional bad visual conditions. As a solution, we proposed a wearable conformal in vivo eye fatigue monitoring sensor that contains an array of piezoelectric nanoribbons integrated on an ultrathin flexible substrate. By detecting strains on the skin of eyelid, the sensors may collect information about eye blinking, and, therefore, reveal human’s fatigue state. We first report the design and fabrication of the piezoelectric sensor and experimental characterization of voltage responses of the piezoelectric sensors. Under bending stress, the output voltage curves yield key information about the motion of human eyelid. We also develop a theoretical model to reveal the underlying mechanism of detecting eyelid motion. Both mechanical load test and in vivo test are conducted to convince the working performance of the sensors. With satisfied durability and high sensitivity, this sensor may efficiently detect abnormal eyelid motions, such as overlong closure, high blinking frequency, low closing speed and weak gazing strength, and may hopefully provide feedback for assessing eye fatigue in time so that unexpected situations can be prevented. (paper)

[en] This paper proposes a novel packaging solution which integrates micro-machined 3D horn antennas with millimeter-wave and THz tranceivers. This packaging solution is shown to be a valid competitor to existing technologies like metallic split-block waveguides and low temperature cofired ceramics. Three different fabrication methods based on two-photon lithography are presented to form the horn antennas. The first uses two-photon lithography to form the bulk of the antenna. This structure is then metalised through physical vapor deposition (PVD) and copper plating. The second fabrication method makes use of a soft polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold to easily replicate structures and the third method forms the horn antenna through electroforming. A prototype is accurately positioned on top of a 400 GHz 28 nm CMOS transmitter and glued in place with epoxy, thus providing a fully packaged solution. Measurement results show a 12 dB increase in the antenna gain when using the packaged solution. The fabrication processes are not limited to horn antennas alone and can be used to form a wide range of mm-sized metal components. (paper)

[en] In this report, a procedure for the 3D-nanofabrication of ordered, high-density arrays of crystalline silicon nanostructures is described. Two nanolithography methods were utilized for the fabrication of the nanostructure array, viz. displacement Talbot lithography (DTL) and edge lithography (EL). DTL is employed to perform two (orthogonal) resist-patterning steps to pattern a thin Si₃N₄ layer. The resulting patterned double layer serves as an etch mask for all further etching steps for the fabrication of ordered arrays of silicon nanostructures. The arrays are made by means of anisotropic wet etching of silicon in combination with an isotropic retraction etch step of the etch mask, i.e. EL. The procedure enables fabrication of nanostructures with dimensions below 15 nm and a potential density of 10¹⁰ crystals cm⁻². (paper)