Transparent micropatterned conductive films based on highlyordered nanowire network

Transparent conductive films that are based on nanowire networks are essential to construct flexible,wearable,and even stretchable electronics.However,large-scale precise micropatterning,especially with regard to the controllability of the organizing orientation of nanowires,is a critical challenge.Herein,we proposed a liquid film rupture self-assembly approach for manufacturing transparent conductive films with microstructure arrays based on a highly ordered nanowire network.The large-scale microstructure conductive films were fabricated through air-liquid interface self-assembly and liquid film rupture self-assembly.Six typical micropattern morphologies,including square,hexagon,circle,serpentine,etc.,were prepared to reveal the universal applicability of the proposed approach.The homogeneity and controllability of this approach were verified for multiple assemblies.With the assembly cycles increasing,the optical transmittance decreases slightly.In addition,theoretical model analysis is carried out,and the analytical formula of the speed of the film moving with the surface tension and the density of the liquid film is presented.Finally,the feasibility of this approach for piezoresistive strain sensors is verified.This fabrication approach demonstrated a cost-effective and efficient method for precisely arranging nanowires,which is useful in transparent and wearable applications.

Design and Fabrication of MEMS Gyroscopes on the Silicon-on-insulator Substrate with Decoupled Oscillation Modes

The mode coupling is a major factor to affect the precision of the micro electromechanical systems（MEMS） gyroscope. Currently, many MEMS gyroscopes with separate oscillation modes for drive and detection have been developed to decrease the mode coupling, but the gyroscope accuracy can not satisfy the high-precision demand well. Therefore, high performance decoupled MEMS gyroscopes is still a hot topic at present. An innovative design scheme for a MEMS gyroscope is designed, and in this design, the inertial mass is divided into three parts including the inner mass, the outer mass and the main frame mass. The masses are supported and separated by a set of mutually orthogonal beams to decouple their movements. Moreover, the design is modelled by multi-port-element network（MuPEN） method and the simulation results show that the mode coupling of the gyroscope between driving and sensing mode was eliminated effectively. Furthermore, we proposed a new silicon-on-insulator（SOI） process to fabricate the gyroscope. The scale factor of the fabricated gyroscope is 8.9 mV/（（~）os） and the quality factor（Q-factor） is as high as 600 at atmosphere pressure, and then, the resonant frequency, scale factor and bias drift has been test. Process and test results show that the proposed MEMS gyroscope are effective for decrease mode coupling, furthermore, it can achieve a high performance at atmosphere pressure. Furthermore, the MEMS gyroscope can achieve a high performance at atmosphere pressure. The research can be taken as good advice for the design and fabrication of MEMS gyroscope, meanwhile, it also provides technical support for speeding up of MEMS gyroscope industrialization.

Integration of Strain Sensors on Additively Manufactured Implantable Devices

The development of personalized healthcare is rapidly growing thanks to the support of low-power electronics,advanced fabrication processes and secured data transmission protocols.Long-acting drug delivery systems able to sustain the release of therapeutics in a controllable manner can provide several advantages in the treatment of chronic diseases.Various systems under development control drug release from an implantable reservoir via concentration driven diffusion through nanofluidic membranes.Given the high drug concentration in the reservoir,an inward osmotic fluid transport occurs across the membrane,which counters the outward diffusion of drugs.The resulting osmotic pressure buildup may be sufficient to cause the failure of implants with associated risks to patients.Confidently assessing the osmotic pressure buildup requires testing in vivo.Here,using metal and polymer AM(additive manufacturing)processes,we designed and developed implantable drug reservoirs with embedded strain sensors to directly measure the osmotic pressure in drug delivery implants in vitro and in vivo.

Study on Energy Stored in Thin Layers of MEMS Ultrasonic Resonance Separator

The particles suspending in liquid suffer acoustical radiation force from ultrasonic field. The force may cause particles movement and has special advantage to separate particles from liquid in Micro Electro Mechanical Systems （MEMS）. It is important to improve the energy stored in liquid layer so as to increase separation ability for decreasing drive demand in MEMS. Resonance may hugely increase the magnitude and generally be employed in micro separator. The summits of admittance spectrum show the resonance frequencies. It may come from resonance in one layer or multi layers in micro separator. This paper studies the difference of energy stored in layers at each rein frequency. It provides the way to select the most effect separation frequency other than admittance spectrum.

RF MEMS Based Reconfigurable Rectangular Slotted Self Similar Antenna

Wireless communication systems which require flexibility and reconfigurability in antenna systems faces main problems like antenna performance, size, weight and cost. A wide band Frequency Reconfigurable Rectangular Slotted Self Similar Antenna has been proposed in this paper. The rectangular slotted patch is repeated for two iterations at different scales and is separated by means of Radio Frequency Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (RF MEMS) switches in order to provide reconfigurability. The antenna can operate in three frequency bandsi.e. K-band, Ku-band and Ka-band by altering the states of RF MEMS switches. To avoid fringing effects and to improve antenna performance, quarter wavelength (λ/4) spacing is required between the antenna and the ground plane. However, a Reconfigurable Antenna requires different λ/4 spacing which is difficult to achieve using a common ground plane. So the Frequency Reconfigurable antenna is integrated with high impedance surface (HIS) like Electronic Band Gap (EBG) structures to suppress standing waves and surface waves with a unified profile thickness of 1.75 mm. The overall dimension of the proposed antenna along with RF MEMS Switch, feed element and HIS is about 8 mm × 8 mm × 1.75 mm. The simulated results of the proposed antenna reveal enhancement in antennas performance like Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR), Front to Back Ratio (FBR) and bandwidth when it is placed over HIS EBG. Also the radiation patterns of the proposed antenna when placed over EBG shows the suppression of side lobe and backward radiation.

A New Process and Technology for Rapid Prototyping of A μ-Micro Motor

A new process and technology of rapid prototyping for a μ-micro motor is presented as a nontraditional machining and an advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) to be realized by using masks, including the operation principle of the motor, structure design, technique, driven circuit, and quality examination with Raman spectrum. The μ-micro motor is fabricated by the micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) process, the structure design must be considered to fabricate or assembly the parts during machining the motor in the meantime. The research proved that integration of IC (integrated circuit) process and MEMS using masks is effective in obtaining the rapid prototyping manufacturing of the μ-micro motor. With the mature technique to fabricate the motor, there are advantages to produce the motor in short time and with lower cost than before. The motor is a common power source of micro machines in military and civilian applications, for example, applied to micro robot, micro bio medicine, and micro machine. The size of the motor is 190 μm in maximum diameter by 125 μm in height that is bulk machined in array with the number of hundreds of micro motors on a substrate.

A micro amperometric immunosensor for detection of human immunoglobulin

A novel amperometric immunosensor based on the micro electromechanical systems （MEMS） technology, using protein A and self-assembled monolayers （SAMs） for the orientation-controlled immobilization of antibodies, has been developed. Using MEMS technology, an ＂Au, Pt, Pt＂ three-microelectrode system enclosed in a SU-8 micro pool was fabricated. Employing SAMs, a monolayer of protein A was immobilized on the cysteamine modified Au electrode to achieve the orientation-controlled immobilization of the human immunoglobulin （HIgG） antibody. The immunosensor aimed at low unit cost, small dimension, high level of integration and the prospect of a biosensor system-on-a-chip. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry were conducted to characterize the immunosensor. Compared with the traditional immunosensor using bulky gold electrode or screen-printed electrode and the procedure directly binding protein A to electrode for immobilization of antibodies, it had attractive advantages, such as miniaturization, compatibility with CMOS technology, fast response （30 s）, broad linear range （50-400 pg/L） and low detection limit （10 pg/L） for HIgG. In addition, this immunosensor was easy to be designed into micro array and to realize the simultaneously multi-parameter detection.

Bacillus cereus AR156 primes induced systemic resistance by suppressing miR825/825 and activating defense-related genes in Arabidopsis

Small RNAs play an important role in plant immune responses. However, their regulatory function in induced systemic resistance（ISR） is nascent. Bacillus cereus AR156 is a plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium that induces ISR in Arabidopsis against bacterial infection. Here,by comparing small RNA profiles of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato（Pst） DC3000-infected Arabidopsis with and without AR156 pretreatment, we identified a group of Arabidopsis micro RNAs（mi RNAs） that are differentially regulated by AR156 pretreatment. mi R825 and mi R825 are two mi RNA generated from a single mi RNA gene.Northern blot analysis indicated that they were significantly downregulated in Pst DC3000-infected plants pretreated with AR156, in contrast to the plants without AR156 pretreatment. mi R825 targets two ubiquitin-protein ligases,while mi R825 targets toll-interleukin-like receptor（TIR）-nucleotide binding site（NBS） and leucine-rich repeat（LRR）type resistance（R） genes. The expression of these target genes negatively correlated with the expression of mi R825 and mi R825. Moreover, transgenic plants showing reduced expression of mi R825 and mi R825 displayed enhanced resistance to Pst DC3000 infection, whereas transgenic plants overexpressing mi R825 and mi R825 were more susceptible. Taken together, our data indicates that Bacillus cereus AR156 pretreatment primes ISR to Pst infection by suppressing mi R825 and mi R825 and activating the defense related genes they targeted.

Graphene foam resonators:Fabrication and characterization

Three-dimensional graphene foams(GFs)benefit from a large surface area and unique physical properties.We present here the first-ever miniaturized GF-based resonators.We developed a simple yet reliable fabrication process,in which GFs are synthesized and assembled on a cavity to form suspended GF devices.We electrostatically excited these devices and analyzed their resonance and ring-down responses.We observed significant energy dissipation,as the quality factor of the devices was in the order of several tens.Additionally,we investigated the influence of temperature on the operation of the devices and found that high temperatures mechanically soften the resonators but also considerably enhance energy dissipation.Finally,our devices demonstrated a mode-coupling of a resonance mode and a mode having twice its frequency.Thus,this work paves the way toward the development of novel GF resonators that could be integrated into future devices,such as GF-based nano-electromechanical sensors,electrical circuits,and oscillators.