We present the design and development of breath-mode silicon ring resonators fabricated using a commercial pure-play microfabrication process that provides ultraclean wafer-level vacuum-encapsulation. The micromechanical resonators are fabricated in MEMS integrated design for inertial sensors process that is developed by Teledyne DALSA Semiconductor Inc. The ring resonators are designed to operate with a relatively low DC polarization voltage, starting at 5 V, while providing a high frequency-quality factor product. We study the quality of the vacuum packaging using an automated testing setup over an extended time period. We study the effect of motional resistance on the performance of MEMS resonators. The fabricated devices had a resonant frequency of 10 MHz with the quality factor exceeding 8.4×104.
Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) exhibits unusual optical properties that make it of interest for hierarchical optical
encryption in nanostructured films. The color-travel phenomenon of iridescence is exhibited by NCC when cast as a film
from chiral nematic aqueous phase suspensions of the nanocrystals. “Iridescence by self-assembly” has potential for
overt encryption as an anti-counterfeiting measure. It also offers an intrinsic level of covert encryption by reflecting leftcircularly
polarized light. We show that addition of a UV sensitive dye adds another level of (covert) encryption, and
that specially prepared films manifest a rare form of optical non-reciprocity that does not require the application of an
external field. Chirality parameters and stokes vector analyses suggest a simple authentication scheme. The method uses
a UV light source and a circular polarizer in conjunction with an iridescent feature that can be verified by the eye or by
chiral spectrometry.
Frequency references are used in almost every modern electronic device including mobile phones, personal computers, and scientific and medical instrumentation. With modern consumer mobile devices imposing stringent requirements of low cost, low complexity, compact system integration and low power consumption, there has been significant interest to develop batch-manufactured MEMS resonators. An important challenge for MEMS resonators is to match the frequency and temperature stability of quartz resonators. We present 1MHz and 20MHz temperature compensated Free-Free beam MEMS resonators developed using PolyMUMPS, which is a commercial multi-user process available from MEMSCAP. We introduce a novel temperature compensation technique that enables high frequency stability over a wide temperature range. We used three strategies: passive compensation by using a structural gold (Au) layer on the resonator, active compensation through using a heater element, and a Free-Free beam design that minimizes the effects of thermal mismatch between the vibrating structure and the substrate. Detailed electro-mechanical simulations were performed to evaluate the frequency response and Quality Factor (Q). Specifically, for the 20MHz device, a Q of 10,000 was obtained for the passive compensated design. Finite Element Modeling (FEM) simulations were used to evaluate the Temperature Coefficient of frequency (TCf) of the resonators between -50°C and 125°C which yielded +0.638 ppm/°C for the active compensated, compared to -1.66 ppm/°C for the passively compensated design and -8.48 ppm/°C for uncompensated design for the 20MHz device. Electro-thermo-mechanical simulations showed that the heater element was capable of increasing the temperature of the resonators by approximately 53°C with an applied voltage of 10V and power consumption of 8.42 mW.
This paper describes an integrated CMOS-MEMS inertial sensor microsystem, consisting of a 3-axis accelerometer
sensor device and its complementary readout circuit, which is designed to operate over a wide temperature range from -
55°C to 175°C. The accelerometer device is based on capacitive transduction and is fabricated using PolyMUMPS,
which is a commercial process available from MEMSCAP. The fabricated accelerometer device is then post-processed
by depositing a layer of amorphous silicon carbide to form a composite sensor structure to improve its performance over
an extended wide temperature range. We designed and fabricated a CMOS readout circuit in IBM 0.13μm process that
interfaces with the accelerometer device to serve as a capacitance to voltage converter. The accelerometer device is
designed to operate over a measurement range of ±20g. The described sensor system allows low power, low cost and
mass-producible implementation well suited for a variety of applications with harsh or wide temperature operating
conditions.
Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) solid films derived from spruce pulp exhibit iridescence when cast from chiral nematic aqueous phase suspensions of the nanocrystals. The iridescence has potential for overt encryption as an anti-counterfeiting measure and also offers an intrinsic level of covert encryption since films of NCC reflect left-circularly polarized light. Addition of TINOPAL, an optical brightening agent (OBA), adds a third level of (covert) encryption potential since the chromophore exhibits strong fluorescence when excited with ultraviolet (UV) light. The overall result is a selectively polarizing fluorescent iridescent film. We examined the impact of additions of OBA on NCC iridescence, optical activity, and physical structure variation with polarized optical microscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectropolarimetry, and zeta potential analysis. Increasing OBA additions increase the chiral nematic pitch of NCC films and alter chiral nematic domain structure in the solid film. Under low-concentration conditions, OBA yields intense UV fluorescence without compromising the visible light iridescent properties of the film. The potential security offered by the NCC film can be authenticated using a UV light source, a circular polarizer in conjunction with an iridescent feature that can be verified by the eye or by chiral spectrometry.
Nanocrystalline cellulose solid films derived from spruce pulp exhibit iridescence when cast from chiral nematic
aqueous phase suspensions of the nanocrystals. Iridescence is a color travel phenomenon that might have potential for
overt encryption as an anti-counterfeiting measure. The iridescent phase also offers an intrinsic level of covert
encryption by virtue of the fact that films of NCC reflect left-circularly polarized light. Addition of TINOPAL, an
optical brightening agent (OBA), adds a third level of (covert) encryption potential since the chromophore exhibits
strong fluorescence when excited at ultra-violet wavelengths. The overall result is a selectively polarizing fluorescent
iridescent film. We study the impact of additions of OBA on NCC iridescence, optical activity, and physical structure
variation with polarized optical microscopy, circular dichroism spectropolarimetry and zeta potential analysis. Increasing
OBA additions increase the chiral nematic pitch of NCC films, and this in turn alters chiral nematic domain structure in
the solid film. Under low concentration conditions defined by our experiments, OBA yields intense UV fluorescence,
without compromising the visible light iridescent properties of the film. The potential security offered by NCC and its
optical responses can be authenticated using a UV light source such as is commonly used for banknote verification, a
circular polarizer in conjunction with an iridescent feature which can be verified by the eye or by chiral spectrometry.
Visceral leishmaniasis (L.donovani) is a protozoan infection that attacks mononuclear phagocytes and causes the liver
and spleen damage that can cause death. The investigation presented is a proof of concept development applying a
plasmonic diagnostic platform with simple microfluidic sample delivery and optical readout. An immune-assay method
is applied to the quantification of A2 protein, a highly immunogenic biomarker for the pathogen. Quantification of A2
was performed in the ng/ml range, analysis by ELISA suggested that a limit of 0.1ng/ml of A2 is approximate to 1
pathogen per ml and the sensing system shows the potential to deliver a similar level of quantification. Significant
reduction in assay complexity as further enzyme linked enhancement is not required when applying a plasmonic methodology to an immunoassay. The basic instrumentation required for a portable device and potential dual optical readout where both plasmonic and photoluminescent response are assessed and investigated including consideration of the application of the device to testing where non-literate communication of results is considered and issues of
performance are addressed.
The cost of fabrication and instrumentation presents a significant barrier to uptake of optical mapping as a tool for
genomic investigation. Here a low cost optical instrumentation system to perform optical genomic mapping of DNA
fragment restriction digestion by nanochannel confinement is presented. Specifically, the system is used for the detection
of YOYO-1 labeled DNA within chemically formed nanochannels on a polystyrene chip. The formation of nanochannels
on the polystyrene chip is achieved by solvent swelling of an injection moulded polystyrene substrate. The inverted
microscope based system is compact and of low-cost but offers the sensitivity to detect individual fragments ranging
from 0.56Kb to 9.4Kb of the λ-phage genome within a channels. Conformation of DNA within nanochannels driven by
capillary flow is most consistent with modeled polymer extension in nanoslit.
In previous work, we demonstrate a simple approach to creating a plasmonic polymer. Reflecting upon the need for
greater spot density while still maintaining the objective of low cost analysis, the next generation of device is described
where density up to 24000 sensing spots is achievable. A localized surface plasmon micro-array is described formed by
single or multiple deposition of a nanorod plasmonic polymer by micro-contact printing. The structure of the polymer
can be made micro-porous and thickness can be controlled by a cyclical deposition and rapid heat cure protocol. The
consistency of feature deposition is assessed. The resulting micro-structure provides a large surface area for
immobilization of biomolecules for assay development. Dark-field analysis of the polymer demonstrates complex
microstructure and intense Mie Scattering as expected from gold nanorods. Using fluorescence confocal analysis images
of the polymer demonstrates two independent photo-luminescent emission spectra. The two independent emission
spectra are linked to the positions of the localized surface plasmons of the nanorods, using a pump source of 543nm
excites the transverse plasmon (peak at 550nm)and it's commensurate emission, but doesn't excite the longer emission
around 700nm that is linked to the longitudinal Plasmon around 737nm. The different emissions are demonstrated in the
illumination of different portions of the polymer matrix under each pump source excitation. The potential for multiple
spectroscopic biosensor analysis is discussed.
High throughput plasmonic sensors are a popular research field, standard surface plasmon resonance (SPR)
instruments can achieve high throughput only in imaging configuration. This leads to consideration of pattern
substrates and isolated nanoparticle arrays, both of which have some disadvantages. Spot functionalisation relies
upon mask or pin printing to accomplish density, and this increase the complexity of use and standard operating
procedures. Both patterned and nanoparticle arrays assay platforms are also commonly single use, unlike some SPR
imaging and multi channel angular sensing SPR approaches. The microarray format proposed here is intended for
multiple usages and regenerated, with a simple optical readout method. A plasmonic polymer of exquisite refractive
index sensitivity and incorporate glass-like physical and mechanical stability provides the sensing element to the
platform. Further, the standard sol-gel chemistry is well understood and amenable to easy covalent functionalisation
as well as matrix methods such as nitrocellulose for biomolecule fictionalization. Two forms of polymer templating
have been developed. For spots greater than 700μm a double side tape method can be applied and for sub 700μm
patterned SU-8 and 100nm Aluminum reflective layer allow greater spot resolution. Proof of concept through
refractive index sensing is demonstrated.
Nano Crystalline Cellulose (NCC) in aqueous suspension gives rise to anisotropic order that leads to iridescence from
the fluid phase. Phase separation and order formation were studied using polarized optical microscopy and laser
diffraction. Factors affecting liquid crystal phase separation, such as hydrolysis time, wood pulp species, sonication
are discussed. Long range order and a physical grating structure are important to produce iridescence in the bulk fluid
liquid crystal phase Stereomicroscopy showed that retardation lines propagate through the bulk of the fluid. Laser
diffraction light experiments reveal features of the time evolution of the bulk grating. The grating structure may be
used as tool to cast a chiral iridescence grating for security applications.
Porous silicon is a potentially useful substrate for fluorescence and scattering enhancement, with a large surface to volume ratio and thermal stability providing a potentially regenerable host matrix for sensor development. A simple process using XeF2 gas phase etching for creating porous silicon is explained. Moreover, how pores diameter can be controlled reproducibly with commensurate effects upon the silicon reflection and pore distribution is discussed. In previous work with this new system, it was clear that control on pore size and morphology was required and a systematic optimization of process conditions was performed to produce greater consistency of the result. The influence of the duration of the pre-etching processing in HF, concentration of the HF in the pre-etching process, and the XeF2 exposure time during the dry etching on surface morphology, pore size, and optical reflectance is explored.
For weak luminescence, quenching of insensitive luminophores by proximity to a gold film improves signal to noise by suppression of background luminescence of Ru(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-anthroline)3Cl2. Initially it was expected that the effects of gold film quenching and nanoparticle enhanced luminescence could be combined to give a summative improvement, but the increase caused by the nanoparticles generates a larger signal to noise ratio and greater sensitivity of those luminophores to the dynamic quenching by gaseous oxygen. Impressive detection limits were achieved on gold coated glass and plain glass, where detection limit was 0.05% and 0.004% and sensitivity 0.02 and 0.05%, respectively.
Porous silicon is a well-known material with interesting properties for a wide variety of applications in electronics,
photonics, medicine, and informatics. We demonstrate fabrication of porous silicon using a dry etching technique. We
demonstrate free standing porous silicon membranes that are only few microns thick. Free standing porous silicon
membranes have the ability to behave as a size-selective permeable membrane by allowing specific sized molecules to
pass through while retaining others. Here, we employ the XeF2 to develop few micrometers thick suspended porous
silicon membranes. The flexibility of XeF2 etching process allows the production of mechanically stable membranes of
different thicknesses. By choosing the appropriate etching parameters and conditions, pore size can be tuned to produce
porous silicon with optically attractive features and desired optical behaviors. The pore size, porosity and thickness of
the various developed ultra-thin free-standing porous silicon membranes were characterized with scanning electron
microscopy and optical transmittance measurements. The fabricated free-standing porous membrane has a typical
transmission spectrum of regular silicon modulated by Fabry-Perot fringes. Porous silicon thin membranes that combine
the properties of a mechanically and chemically stable high surface area matrix with the function of an optical transducer
may find many used in biomedical microdevices.
The field of plasmonics has shown a great promise in the enhancement of luminescence detection. Here, a simple
method to enhance oxygen detection by quenching of Ru[(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-anthroline)3]2+ (or Ru[dpp]2+) in a sol-gel
matrix by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) is presented. In the experiments,
AuNP (10 ± 1.5 nm diameter) were added to a sol that was prepared by hydrolysis of trimethoxysilane,
octyltrimethoxysilane and ethanol in the presence of Ru[dpp]2+ luminophore. The resulting sol of the mixture was
spincoated on glass and allowed to age in the dark for one week to form the sol-gel film. A control sample was also
prepared using the procedure, except that AuNP was not added to the sol. The resulting AuNP embedded sol-gel shows
8.3 times improvement in the baseline (0% O2) intensity (I0) over the control. Moreover, there is a dramatic
improvement in the sensitivity from 0.0011 per % O2 in the control to 0.059 per % O2 with AuNP, for O2 level below
15%. Signal to noise ratio also improved, thus leading to a 100-fold improvement in the detection limit. Using phaseluminometry,
it was determined that there is a reduction in the luminescence lifetime when AuNP is added to the sol-gel
matrix. This reduction in the lifetime can be explained by the near-field interaction between the luminophores and the
AuNP.
Mesoporous materials, such as porous silicon and porous polymer gratings (Bragg structures), offer an attractive platform for the encapsulation of chemical and biological recognition elements. These materials include the advantages of high surface to volume ratio, biocompatibility, functionality with various recognition elements, and the ability to modify the material surface/volume properties and porosity. Two porous structures were used for chemical and biological sensing: porous silicon and porous polymer photonic bandgap structures. Specifically, a new dry etching manufacturing technique employing xenon difluoride (XeF2) based etching was used to produce porous silicon Porous silicon continues to be extensively researched for various optical and electronic devices and applications in chemical and biological sensing are abundant. The dry etching technique to manufacture porous silicon offers a simple and efficient alternative to the traditional wet electrochemical etching using hydrofluoric acid. This new porous silicon material was characterized for its pore size and morphology using top and cross-sectional views from scanning electron microscopy. Its optical properties were determined by angular dependence of reflectance measurements. A new class of holographically ordered porous polymer gratings that are an extension of holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) structures. As an alternative structure and fabrication process, porous polymer gratings that include a volatile solvent as the phase separation fluid was fabricated. Porous silicon and porous polymer materials were used as substrates to encapsulate gaseous oxygen (O2) responsive luminophores in their nanostructured pores. These substrate materials behave as optical interference filters that allow efficient and selective detection of the wavelengths of interest in optical sensors.
Porous silicon is an attractive platform for the encapsulation of chemical and biological recognition elements. We
demonstrate fabrication of porous silicon using a dry etching technique. The Xenon Difluoride etching technique allows
selective formation of porous silicon with a standard photoresist layer as mask. We demonstrate free standing 5μm thick
porous silicon films for biological sample filtering. Further, we employ the porous silicon as a substrate for the
immobilization of xerogel thin films that encapsulate specific analyte responsive luminophores in their pores. The porous
silicon behaves as an optical interference filter which allows selective enhancement of the wavelengths of interest.
We report the development of a silicon microelectrode array for brain machine interfaces and neural prosthesis fabricated in a commercial microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) process. We demonstrate high-aspect ratio silicon microelectrodes that reach 6.5 mm in length while having only 10 µm thickness. The fabrication of such elongated neural microelectrodes could lead to the development of cognitive neural prosthetics. Cognitive neural signals are higher level signals that contain information related to the goal of movements such as reaching and grasping and can be recorded from deeper regions of the brain such as the parietal reach region (PRR). We propose a new concept of reinforcing the regions of the electrodes that are more susceptible to breakage to withstand the insertion axial forces, retraction forces, and tension forces of the brain tissue during surgical implantation. We describe the design techniques, detailed analytical models, and simulations to develop reinforced silicon-based elongated neural electrodes. The electrodes are fabricated using the commercial MicraGem process from Micralyne, Inc. The use of a commercial MEMS fabrication process for silicon neural microelectrodes development yields low-cost, mass-producible, and well-defined electrode structures.
The development of intelligent miniaturized biochemical sensors has been an area of active research over the past several
years. These microsensors and sensor microarrays are finding niche applications in point-of-care diagnostics, personal
care, food safety, and environmental monitoring. Among these sensors, optical (luminescence) sensing holds a great
promise towards implementing simple, specific, and highly sensitive biochemical sensors. It is generally understood that
biochemical recognition elements that respond specifically to the target analytes play a critical role in the overall sensor
operation. Aside from the recognition elements, signal detection and processing components are important to collect the
information provided by recognition elements and output an easily understandable response. The signal processing
component provides the best opportunity to incorporate intelligence to achieve low-power, adaptive, accurate, and
reliable sensors. We deal with sensors that use sol-gel derived xerogels as recognition materials and Complementary
Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits for signal detection and processing. Xerogels are
nano/microporous glasses that can be used to encapsulate luminophores, enzymes, and nanoparticles in their pores. In
this Article, we will describe some of the emerging integrated sensor platforms that are based on monitoring the excited-state
luminescence intensity and lifetimes of the luminophores housed in the xerogels. Specifically, we describe a CMOS
imaging system for simultaneously monitoring xerogels sensor arrays. Next, we describe a non-linear phase
luminometric system with enhanced and dynamically tunable sensitivity and improved signal-to-noise performance.
Finally, we will describe time-based signal processing that could enable the direct measurement of excited state
fluorescence lifetimes. This time-to-digital converter requires simple circuit implementation and can be used to measure
lifetimes that are on the order of several hundred nanoseconds. The time based signal processing could ultimately allow
the development of low-cost lifetime imaging system wherein one could take the lifetimes' image of an array of
recognition elements rather than collecting an image of their fluorescence intensities.
Neural microelectrodes are an important component of neural prosthetic systems which assist paralyzed patients by
allowing them to operate computers or robots using their neural activity. These microelectrodes are also used in clinical
settings to localize the locus of seizure initiation in epilepsy or to stimulate sub-cortical structures in patients with
Parkinson's disease. In neural prosthetic systems, implanted microelectrodes record the electrical potential generated by
specific thoughts and relay the signals to algorithms trained to interpret these thoughts. In this paper, we describe novel
elongated multi-site neural electrodes that can record electrical signals and specific neural biomarkers and that can reach
depths greater than 8mm in the sulcus of non-human primates (monkeys). We hypothesize that additional signals
recorded by the multimodal probes will increase the information yield when compared to standard probes that record just
electropotentials. We describe integration of optical biochemical sensors with neural microelectrodes. The sensors are
made using sol-gel derived xerogel thin films that encapsulate specific biomarker responsive luminophores in their
nanostructured pores. The desired neural biomarkers are O2, pH, K+, and Na+ ions. As a prototype, we demonstrate
direct-write patterning to create oxygen-responsive xerogel waveguide structures on the neural microelectrodes. The
recording of neural biomarkers along with electrical activity could help the development of intelligent and more userfriendly
neural prosthesis/brain machine interfaces as well as aid in providing answers to complex brain diseases and
disorders.
We report the development of a novel methodology for patterning of nanostructured sensory materials using multi-dimensional
microstructured support platforms for optical bioimaging applications. Specifically, the support platforms
are fabricated using direct-write technique and sol-gel derived xerogel thin-films to form the sensor materials. This
creates a simple and versatile method for developing complex 3-D microstructures that have the combined capabilities of
biochemical sensing, microfluidic sample distribution for sensor arrays, and direct integration with Complimentary
Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Integrated Circuits (ICs) used for sensor signal detection and processing. More
importantly, this methodology would enable the development of large-scale arrayed sensing platforms for applications in
cell-culture analysis and tissue imaging. The configuration and fabrication of the proposed microstructures, which
consist of planar ridge and hollow waveguides, will be described in detail. As a prototype implementation, we
demonstrate direct-write ridge waveguide support structures coated with luminophore-doped xerogels that are responsive
to gaseous oxygen (O2) concentration.
A methodology for enabling biochemical sensing applications using porous polymer photonic bandgap structures is presented. Specifically, we demonstrate an approach to encapsulation of chemical and biological recognition elements within the pores of these structures. This sensing platform is built on our recently demonstrated nanofabrication technique using holographic interferometry of a photo-activated mixture that includes a volatile solvent as well as monomers, photoinitiators, and co-initiators. Evaporation of the solvent after polymerization yields nanoporous polymeric 1D photonic bandgap structures that can be directly integrated into optical sensor systems that we have previously developed. More importantly, these composite structures are simple to fabricate, chromatically tunable, highly versatile, and can be employed as a general template for the encapsulation of biochemical recognition elements. As a specific example of a prototype device, we demonstrate an oxygen (O2) sensor by encapsulating the fluorophore (tris(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenathroline)ruthenium(II) within these nanostructured materials. Finally, we report initial results of extending this technique to the development of a hydrophilic porous polymer photonic bandgap structure for sensing in aqueous environments. The ability to control the hydrophilic/hydrophobic nature of these materials has direct impact on chemical and biological sensing.
The development of porous nanostructured materials, such as polymer Bragg gratings, offer an attractive and unique platform for chemical and biological recognition elements. Much of the efforts in polymeric gratings have been focused on holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) gratings with demonstrated applications in switching, lasing, and display devices. Here, we present the application of porous polymer photonic bandgap structures produced using a modified holographic method that includes a solvent as a phase separation fluid. The resulting gratings are simple to fabricate, stable, tunable, and highly versatile. Moreover, these acrylate porous polymer photonic bandgap structures were generated using a simple one-beam setup. In this paper, we describe the application of these nanoporous polymer gratings as a general template for biochemical recognition elements. As a prototype, we developed an oxygen (O2) sensor by encapsulating the fluorophore (tris(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenathroline)ruthenium(II) within these nanostructured materials. Thus, the obtained O2 sensors performed through the full-scale range (0%-100%) with a response time of less than 1 second. Most importantly, the use of the inherent property of these gratings to transmit or reflect a particular wavelength spectrum, based on the grating spacing, enables us to selectively enhance the detection efficiency for the wavelengths of interest.
Rapid advances in point-of-care devices for medical and biomedical diagnostic and therapeutic applications have
increased the need for low cost, low power, high throughput, and miniaturized systems. To this end, we developed
several optical sensor systems using CMOS detection and processing components and sol-gel derived xerogel
recognition elements for monitoring various biochemical analytes. These sensors are based either on the measurement of
the luminescence intensity or the excited-state lifetimes of luminophores embedded in the nanostructured xerogel
matrices. Specifically, the design and development of CMOS detection and signal processing components and their
system integration will be described in detail. Additionally, we will describe the factors that limit the performance of
these sensor systems in terms of sensitivity, response time, and dynamic range. Finally, the results obtained for
monitoring important biochemical analytes such as oxygen (O2) and glucose will be discussed.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.