Low resistance contracts to highly doped silicon carbide (SiC) are investigated. Using a novel test structure that is easy to fabricate and easy to use, this paper demonstrates how it is used to reliably determine relatively low specific contact resistivities which vary with heat treatment. The test structure requires no error correction and is not affected by parasitic resistances. Using the test structure, small changes in specific contact resistivity are determined for small temperature changes. Results will be presented and discussed on the application of this novel test structure for nickel to highly doped SiC.
The combined use of film transparency masks and dry film resist has allowed a rapid prototyping of designs and
structures in chips for droplet generation. Patterning of the film resist has produced channels with smooth vertical
sidewalls. The minimum feature dimension, δ, was reduced by increasing the resolution and spacing of the pattern
geometries in the film mask. For a single layer of resist (~35 μm thick), a minimum feature width of ~60 μm was
obtained using 2040 dpi transparency masks, 40 µm for 5800 dpi transparency masks and 25 μm using a Cr mask of
equal size/ spacing of features. A doubling of the spacing between features in a 2400 dpi masks resulted in an attainable
feature size of ~40 μm. The minimum feature dimension increased exponentially with thickness of 5038 resist.
Microfluidic chips which were fabricated in PMMA by this method have demonstrated controlled characteristics in the
generation of oil droplets in water.
This paper reports on the development of a hand-held device for on-site detection of
organophosphonate nerve agent degradation products. This field-deployable analyzer relies on
efficient microchip electrophoresis separation of alkyl methylphosphonic acids and their sensitive
contactless conductivity detection. Miniaturized, low-powered design is coupled with promising
analytical performance for separating the breakdown products of chemical warfare agents such as
Soman, Sarin and VX . The detector has a detection limit of about 10 μg/mL and has a good linear
response in the range 10-300 μg/mL concentration range. Applicability to environmental samples is
demonstrated .The new hand-held analyzer offers great promise for converting conventional ion
chromatography or capillary electrophoresis sophisticated systems into a portable forensic laboratory
for faster, simpler and more reliable on-site screening.
Microbubbles have been used as ultrasound contrast agents in medical applications such as imaging, and also for
drug/gene delivery, target destruction and so on. Microbubbles are normally made by sonication techniques and the
resulting size distribution is very large. Microfluidics provides an alternative way of microbubble fabrication due to
recent advances in microfabrication and microfluidics development. The current techniques are capable of making
bubbles with a size of several micrometers. However, the throughput for such a size range is very limited. In this study, a
new microfluidic bubble generation chip was developed, which incorporates a T-junction PDMS microchannel network
with an inserted glass capillary. The flow rate of liquid, gas pressure and the inserted capillary inner diameter are crucial
for control of the bubble size. A series of capillaries with different inner diameters have been used. With co-flow
focusing liquids and a fine-drawn glass capillary, bubble size could be decreased and bubbles with a size of 13 μm in
diameter were generated reliably after the optimizing of liquid flow rate and gas pressure. It was found that a 5 μm
capillary inserted microchip produced 11 μm diameter bubbles with a cross-flow rupturing method.
Droplet-based in vitro compartmentalization (IVC) platform is a powerful tool in protein analysis. Reliable formation of microdroplets is important for the development of the microfluidic chip. In this study, we will examine the effect of surfactants on the formation of microdroplets in the flow focusing microfluidic device which is needed for enzyme evolution. Surfactants of Span 80 and Tween 20 are used in the continuous and dispersed phases, respectively. The droplet formation was affected distinguishably with the presence of Span 80 and Tween 20. The size of droplets decreased as the concentration of Span 80 increased. And the decrease was more pronounced with the combination of Span 80 and Tween 20.
Microchip-based electrophoretic separation systems are essential components in the development of fully integrated
micro total analysis systems. In this paper, a miniaturized analytical system for separating and detecting inorganic ions
is described. The system was based on a polycarbonate (PC) capillary electrophoresis (CE) chip and a contactless
conductivity detector, both being developed at CSIRO Microfluidics and Microfabrication Laboratories, Melbourne,
Australia. The PC chip was fabricated using the soft lithography technique in conjunction with nickel plating and hot
embossing. The detector electrodes were fabricated from a PCB board and attached on the separation chip bottom
surface. The thin capping layer (20 micron) of the chip allowed for sensitive detection of conductivity change. The
system was demonstrated to separate reliably the potassium, sodium and lithium ions in a 20mM MES/His buffer within
a minute at an electrical field of 28.5kV/m. The detection limit for the current design is around 100μM. Such a system
offers great promise to be integrated into robust hand-held devices for in-situ monitoring of chemical and biological
samples with high speed, reliability and low costs.
KEYWORDS: Printing, Modulation, Digital watermarking, Polymers, Photography, Micromirrors, Data hiding, Nickel, Electron beam lithography, Reflectivity
In previous work we have demonstrated that selective masking, or modulation, of digital images can be used to create documents and transparent media containing covert or optically variable, overt images. In the present work we describe new applications and techniques of such "modulated digital images" (MDI's) in document security. In particular, we demonstrate that multiple hidden images can be imperceptibly concealed within visible, host images by incorporating them as a new, half-tone, printing screen. Half-toned hidden images of this type may contain a variety of novel features that hinder unauthorized copying, including concealed multiple images, and microprinted-, color-, and various fadeeffects. Black-and-white or full color images may be readily used in this respect. We also report a new technique for the embossing of multiple, covert- or optically variable, overt-images into transparent substrates. This method employs an embossing tool that is prepared using a combination of electron beam and greytone lithography. Two approaches may be used: (i) a double-sided "soft" emboss into curable, transparent, lacquer layers, and (ii) a single-sided "hot" emboss in which multiple, dithered images consisting of distinctly-sloped microprisms are impressed into the substrate. Technique (ii) requires a novel, electron-beam-originated master dye.
A novel resonant grating filter has been designed and constructed for the red part of the visible spectrum. A multilayer waveguide structure underneath a subwavelength grating has been used to reduce the reflectivity of the grating in the vicinity of the resonant peak.
The reactive ion etching (RIE) of quartz and of silica-based glasses has been examined in CF4/CHF3 plasmas. The etch rate was shown to reduce strongly with an increasing percentage of non-volatile elements in the glass. The etching of the quartz and the Suprasil 2 and Herasil 2 glasses was consistent with a process of ion-enhanced chemical reaction as identified by Steinbruchel. For these substrates, the etch rate was directly dependent on the square root of bias voltage in the RIE and increased with the ratio of CF4:CHF3 in the gas mixture. The comparatively low etch rates of the LE, soda-lime and NA glasses were equivalent in both the CHF3/CF4 and Ar plasmas, indicating a process of sputter etching. The BK7 glass has shown intermediate characteristics with a higher etch rate in CF4/CHF3 than in Ar plasma, indicating ion enhanced chemical etching but with little dependence on the CF4:CHF3 gas ratio. These results have been applied in the fabrication of grating patterns.
We demonstrate all optically (UV) written waveguide grating structures in germanosilicate trilayers grown by conventional PECVD, as well as novel results with a new hollow cathode PECVD growth technique which is capable of producing films having either positive or negative UV photosensitivity.
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