Search results for "FABRICATION"
showing 10 items of 460 documents
Muscular MEMS—the engineering of liquid crystal elastomer actuators
2016
A new class of soft-matter actuator, the liquid crystal elastomer (LCE), shows promise for application in a wide variety of mechanical microsystems. Frequently referred to as an 'artificial muscle', this family of materials exhibits large actuation stroke and generates considerable force, in a compact form which may easily be combined with the structures and devices commonly used in microsystems and MEMS. We show here how standard microfabrication techniques may be used to integrate LCEs into mechanical microsystems and present an in-depth analysis of their mechanical and actuation properties. Using an example from micro-optics and optical MEMS, we demonstrate that their performance and fle…
MEMS analogous micro-patterning of thermotropic nematic liquid crystalline elastomer films using a fluorinated photoresist and a hard mask process
2017
In this work, we present a method to pattern liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) in the micrometer range without using any mechanical processing steps to prepare micron sized LCE actuators compatible with microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. Multi-layer spin-coating processes are developed to synthesise and structure 300–3500 nm thick LCE films. A water soluble sacrificial layer, a photoalignment layer and a LCE formulation, which is polymerised and crosslinked in its liquid crystal phase, are spin-coated successively onto a substrate. A fluorinated photoresist layer is used to structure LCE films with thicknesses up to 700 nm in a photolithographic and etching process. For thicker…
Reverberation reduction in capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) by front-face reflectivity minimization
2015
Abstract Front-face acoustic reflectivity of ultrasonic imaging transducers, due to acoustic impedance mismatch with the propagation medium, may cause reverberation phenomena during wideband pulse-echo operation. Front-face reflectivity may be reduced by promoting the transmission of the echoes, received from the medium, to the transducer backing, and by maximizing the mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion and dissipation by tuning the electrical load impedance connected to the transducer. In Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs), the energy transfer from the medium to the backing is very low due to the large impedance mismatch between the medium and the transducer su…
Evidence of Magnetoresistance in the Prussian Blue Lattice during a Voltammetric Scan
2008
This manuscript reports evidence of magnetoresistance effects in the Prussian Blue lattice during a voltammetric scan at room temperature. Accordingly, the PB is a well-known semiconductor that becomes surprisingly an almost metallic conductor in the presence of an internal magnetic field induced during the voltammetric scan. This offers appealing perspectives for the control of this interesting phenomenon from electrochemical techniques that could be used for the fabrication of the recent phase-change computational memories, which are electronically configurable. Herein, the PB magnetic properties have been monitored in situ by means of resonating magnetic microsensors based on the shift i…
Deterministic Single-Ion Implantation of Rare-Earth Ions for Nanometer-Resolution Color-Center Generation
2019
Single dopant atoms or dopant-related defect centers in a solid state matrix provide an attractive platform for quantum simulation of topological states, for quantum computing and communication, due to their potential to realize a scalable architecture compatible with electronic and photonic integrated circuits. The production of such quantum devices calls for deterministic single atom doping techniques because conventional stochastic doping techniques are cannot deliver appropriate architectures. Here, we present the fabrication of arrays of praseodymium color centers in YAG substrates, using a deterministic source of single laser-cooled Pr$^+$ ions. The beam of single Pr$^+$ ions is extra…
Contrôle de nano-antennes optiques par une commande électrique : tuner plasmonique et transduction
2011
Optical nano-antennae are the new class of components to control light/matterinteraction at the nanoscale. These devices are operating in the visible to near infraredpart of the spectrum. The properties of these nano objects are controlled by theform, the size and the material.In the radio frequency domain, the tuner changes dynamically the operatingwavelength of the antenna. In this thesis work, we search to transfer this conceptto the nanoscale. The principle is to change the load impedance of the antenna, i.e.changing the optical index of the dielectric medium around the nano-object. Forthat we used anisotropic liquid cristal molecules. The value of the optical index iscontrolled by appl…
Optical properties of in-vitro biomineralised silica
2012
Silicon is the second most common element on the Earth's crust and its oxide (SiO(2)) the most abundant mineral. Silica and silicates are widely used in medicine and industry as well as in micro- and nano-optics and electronics. However, the fabrication of glass fibres and components requires high temperature and non-physiological conditions, in contrast to biosilica structures in animals and plants. Here, we show for the first time the use of recombinant silicatein-α, the most abundant subunit of sponge proteins catalyzing biosilicification reactions, to direct the formation of optical waveguides in-vitro through soft microlithography. The artificial biosilica fibres mimic the natural spon…
Modification of Nanocrystalline WO3 with a Dicationic Perylene Bisimide: Applications to Molecular Level Solar Water Splitting
2015
[(N,N?-Bis(2-(trimethylammonium)ethylene) perylene 3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid bisimide)(PF6)2] (1) was observed to spontaneously adsorb on nanocrystalline WO3 surfaces via aggregation/hydrophobic forces. Under visible irradiation (? > 435 nm), the excited state of 1 underwent oxidative quenching by electron injection (kinj > 108 s-1) to WO3, leaving a strongly positive hole (Eox ? 1.7 V vs SCE), which allows to drive demanding photo-oxidation reactions in photoelectrochemical cells (PECs). The casting of IrO2 nanoparticles (NPs), acting as water oxidation catalysts (WOCs) on the sensitized electrodes, led to a 4-fold enhancement in photoanodic current, consistent with hole transfer from …
Evaluation of the enamel etching pattern of self-etching adhesives
2010
Objectives: To evaluate the capacity of seven self-etching adhesives (SEAs) to demineralize ground enamel in comparison with traditional phosphoric acid etchant (PAE) using SEM and statistical analysis. Materials and methods: 80 caries-free extracted human third molars were divided into 8 groups ( n = 10). Enamel bur-cut surfaces were prepared and, strictly following the manufacturers’ instructions, treated with three priming agents of two-step self-etching adhesives: Aqua Resulcin Prime (Group 1); Peak™ (Group 2); Clearfil Protect Bond (Group 3); four one-step self-etch (all-in-one) adhesives, G-Bond (Group 4); Artegral One (Group 5); Clearfil S3 Bond (Group 6); Adper Easy Bond (Group 7); …
Marginal quality of a full-body bulk-fill composite placed with an universal adhesive system in etch-and-rinse and self-etch mode: An
2020
Background Marginal seal of a nanohybrid bulk-fill composite compared to a nanohybrid conventional composite, using a universal adhesive (UA) applied in etch-and-rinse (ER) and self-etch (SE) mode was investigated. Material and Methods Thirty-six intact molars were selected and two standardized cavities in each tooth were prepared and allocated into four groups according to restorative material and etching strategy. All samples were placed in a 1% methylene blue solution for 24 h, then cut in the middle of the restorations obtaining two parts (n=144) and used for microscopic evaluation (50x) for dye penetration measurements. Results The data were analysed by ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc test (p…