Electric fields within cells as a function of membrane resistivity--a model study

Externally applied electric fields play an important role in many therapeutic modalities, but the fields they produce inside cells remain largely unknown. This study makes use of a three-dimensional model to determine the electric field that exists in the intracellular domain of a 10-/spl mu/m spherical cell exposed to an applied field of 100 V/cm. The transmembrane potential resulting from the applied field was also determined and its change was compared to those of the intracellular field. The intracellular field increased as the membrane resistance decreased over a wide range of values. The results showed that the intracellular electric field was about 1.1 mV/cm for R/sub m/ of 10 000 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/, increasing to about 111 mV/cm as R/sub m/ decreased to 100 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/. Over this range of R/sub m/ the transmembrane potential was nearly constant. The transmembrane potential declined only as R/sub m/ decreased below 1 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/. The simulation results suggest that intracellular electric field depends on R/sub m/ in its physiologic range, and may not be negligible in understanding some mechanisms of electric field-mediated therapies.     

A micromachined wide-bandwidth magnetic field sensor based on all-PMMA electron tunneling transducer

All-PMMA-based tunneling magnetic sensors were fabricated by hot embossing replication with silicon templates. The silicon templates had smooth surfaces, positive profiles, and pyramid-like pits with a high aspect ratio. With this fast (20 min), simple (one-step), and repeatable method, the all-PMMA tunneling sensor platform yielded sharp tunneling tips with 75 /spl mu/m in baseline and 50 /spl mu/m in depth. The sensors were assembled and fixed with measurement circuits, after their electrodes were patterned with modified photolithography and Co film was deposited with e-beam evaporation. A natural frequency response of 1.3 kHz was observed, and a tunneling barrier height of 0.713 eV was tested. Due to the quadratic relation between magnetic force and the field, the sensor field response (7.0/spl times/10/sup 6/ V/T/sup 2/) was also quadratic. The noise voltage at 1 kHz is 0.2 mV, corresponding to a magnet field of 0.46/spl times/10/sup -6/ T. The bandwidth of this sensor is 18 kHz. This new type of sensor platform is promising for the next generation of microsensing applications.     

First results on the characterization of new semitransparent amorphous silicon sensors

This paper presents the first results on the performance of a new generation of semitransparent amorphous silicon position detectors having very good properties, such as a spatial reconstruction precision better than 10 /spl mu/m, deflection angles smaller than 10 /spl mu/rad and transmission in the visible higher than 80%. In addition, the sensitive area is very large: 30/spl times/30 cm/sup 2/.     

Microelectronic capacitance transducer for particle detection

This paper describes the CMOS circuit design of a sensor for detecting changes of capacitance due, for instance, to the incidence of particles or bubbles on the electrodes. The circuit is based on a simple design originating at the University of California, Berkeley, for measuring crosstalk on integrated circuits. The basic front-end sensor circuit comprises eight MOSFETs and has a sensitivity of 40 mV/fF. A differential amplifier receives the outputs from two sensor circuits each having 20-/spl mu/m square inter-digitated electrodes. The resulting sensitivity of the fabricated sensor is 1 V/fF with a noise level equivalent to 10 aF. Monte Carlo circuit simulations have been used to identify transistor dimensions to yield acceptable yield, and prototype custom silicon chips have been fabricated using a 0.8-/spl mu/m CMOS process. Static and dynamic tests, using polyamide particles as small as 10-/spl mu/m diameter, verify correct operation of the sensors. The sensor is now being developed for application in miniature electrical tomography systems.     

Localized growth of suspended SWCNTs by means of an "all-laser" process and their direct integration into nanoelectronic devices

We have successfully developed an "all-laser" processing for the localized growth of suspended single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on prepatterned SiO/sub 2//Si substrates. Our "all-laser" process stands out by its exclusive use of the same KrF excimer laser, first, to deposit the embedded-catalyst electrodes with a controllable architecture and, second, to grow SWCNTs through the pulsed laser ablation of a pure graphite target. Under the optimal growth conditions, the suspended SWCNTs are shown to bridge laterally adjacent electrodes separated by a gap of /spl sim/2 /spl mu/m. These SWCNTs (having diameters in the 1.25-1.64-nm range) generally tend to auto-assemble into bundles of /spl sim/5--15 nm in diameter. The "all-laser" process here developed offers the advantage of a direct integration of the SWCNTs into field-effect-transistor-like devices with no postprocessing, thereby permitting the investigation of their electrical transport properties. Thus, the suspended SWCNT bundles are shown to behave collectively as an ambipolar transistor with ON/OFF switching ratios as high as /spl sim/10/sup 4/.     

Amorphous silicon two-color microbolometer for uncooled IR detection

This paper describes the modeling and design of two-color microbolometers for uncooled infrared (IR) detection. The goal is to develop a high resolution IR detector array that can measure the actual temperature and color of an object based on two spectral wavelength regions. The microbolometer consists of high temperature amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film layer held above the substrate by Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ bridge. A thin NiCr absorber with sheet resistance of 377 /spl Omega//sqr is used to enhance the optical absorption in the medium and long IR wavelength windows. A tunable micromachined Al-mirror was suspended underneath the detector. The mirror is switched between two positions by the application of an electrostatic voltage. The switching of the mirror between the two positions enables the creation of two wavelength response windows, 3-5 and 8-12 /spl mu/m. A comparison of the two response wavelength windows enables the determination of the actual temperature of a viewed scene obtained by an IR camera. The microbolometer is designed with a low thermal mass of 1.65/spl times/10/sup -9/ J/K and a low thermal conductance of 2.94/spl times/10/sup -7/ W/K to maximize the responsivity R/sub v/ to a value as high as 5.91/spl times/10/sup 4/ W/K and detectivity D/sup */ to a value as high as 2.34/spl times/10/sup 9/ cm Hz/sup 1/2//W at 30 Hz. The corresponding thermal time constant is equal to 5.62 ms. Hence, these detectors could be used for 30-Hz frame rate applications. The extrapolated noise equivalent temperature difference is 2.34 mK for the 8-12 /spl mu/m window and 23 mK for the 3-5 /spl mu/m window. The calculated absorption coefficients in the medium and long IR wavelength windows before color mixing are 66.7% and 83.7%. However, when the color signals are summed at the output channel, the average achieved absorption was 75%.     

A dual pixel-type array for imaging and motion centroid localization

An imager chip has been designed, fabricated, and tested having two unique pixel types interleaved on the same array. The dual-pixel design enables optimization for two separate tasks. One type of pixel is an active pixel sensor (APS), which is used to produce a low-noise image. The other type is a custom-designed pixel optimized for computing the centroid of a moving object in the scene. The APS array is 120 columns /spl times/36 rows, with a pixel size of 14.7/spl times/14.7 /spl mu/m. The centroid array has 60 columns and 36 rows, with a larger pixel size of 29.4/spl times/29.4 /spl mu/m. The chip was fabricated using standard scalable rules on a 0.5 /spl mu/m 1P3M CMOS process. APS images were taken at a frame rate of 30 fps-8300 fps and centroid data was taken at a rate of 180-3580 (x,y) coordinates per second. The chip consumed 2.6 mW.     

Design, optimization, and performance analysis of new photodiode structures for CMOS active-pixel-sensor (APS) imager applications

The dark current in the active-pixel-sensor (APS) cell of a CMOS imager is known to be mainly generated in the regions of bird's beak after the local oxidation of silicon process as well as the surface damage caused by the implantation of high doping concentration. Furthermore, shallow and deep pn-junctions can improve the photo-sensitivity for light of short and long wavelengths, respectively. In this paper, two new photodiode structures using p-substrate and lightly-doped sensor implant SN- as pn-junction photodiode with the regions of bird's beak embraced by SN- and p-field implants, respectively, are proposed and analyzed to reduce dark current and enhance the overall spectral response. 5 /spl mu/m/spl times/5 /spl mu/m APS cells fabricated in a 0.35-/spl mu/m single-poly-triple-metal (1P3M) 3.3-V CMOS process are designed by using the proposed photodiode structures. As shown from the experimental results, the two proposed photodiode structures of 5 /spl mu/m/spl times/5 /spl mu/m APS cells have lower dark currents of 30.6 mV/s and 35.2 mV/s at the reverse-biased voltage of 2 V and higher spectral response, as compared to the conventional structure and other photodiode structures. Thus, the two proposed new photodiode structures can be applied to CMOS imager systems with small pixel size, high resolution, and high quality.     

Fabrication of ultralow-profile micromachined inductor with magnetic core material

We have fabricated a microinductor with an ultralow profile by a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technique. The fabrication process uses UV-LIGA, dry etching, fine polishing, and electroplating to achieve high performance. The dimensions of the inductor are 1500 /spl mu/m/spl times/900 /spl mu/m/spl times/100 /spl mu/m. It has 41 turns, with coil width of 20 /spl mu/m, space of 20 /spl mu/m, and a high aspect ratio of 5 : 1. The inductance is 0.424 /spl mu/H and the quality factor (Q factor) is about 1.7 at a frequency of 1 MHz. The stray capacitance is approximately zero over the frequency range measured.     

Design and fabrication of a microimpedance biosensor for bacterial detection

A biosensor for bacterial detection was developed based on microelectromechanical systems, heterobifunctional crosslinkers and immobilized antibodies. The sensor detected the change in impedance caused by the presence of bacteria immobilized on interdigitated gold electrodes and was fabricated from (100) silicon with a 2-/spl mu/m layer of thermal oxide as an insulating layer. The sensor active area is 9.6 mm/sup 2/ and consists of two interdigital gold electrode arrays measuring 0.8 /spl times/ 6 mm. Escherichia coli specific antibodies were immobilized to the oxide between the electrodes to create a biological sensing surface. The impedance across the interdigital electrodes was measured after immersing the biosensor in solution. Bacteria cells present in the sample solution attached to the antibodies and became tethered to the electrode array, thereby causing a change in measured impedance. The biosensor was able to discriminate between different cellular concentrations from 10/sup 5/ to 10/sup 7/ CFU/mL in pure culture. The sample testing process, including data acquisition, required 5 min. The design, fabrication, and testing of the biosensor is discussed along with the implications of these findings toward further biosensor development.     

Design and fabrication of a novel crystal SiGeC far infrared sensor with wavelength 8-14 micrometer

In this paper, we report the design, fabrication, and performance of a novel crystal SiGeC infrared sensor with wavelength 8-14 /spl mu/m by bulk micromachining technology for portable far infrared ray (FIR) in rehabilitation system application. The working principle of the sensor is based on the change of thermistor's resistance under the irradiation FIR light. The thermistor in the IR detector is made of Si/sub 0.68/Ge/sub 0.31/C/sub 0.01/ thin films for its large activation energy of 0.21 ev and the temperature coefficient (TCR) of -2.74%, respectively. Finite element method package ANSYS has been employed for analyze of the thermal isolation and stress distribution in the IR detector. The dimension of the microbridge fabricated by anisotropic wet etching is 2000 /spl times/ 2000 /spl times/ 25 /spl mu/m/sup 3/. The developed FIR sensor exhibits the thermal conductance of 1.85 /spl times/ 10/sup -1/ WK/sup -1/ and the heat capacity as 7.4 /spl times/ 10/sup -7/ JK/sup -1/ under air ambient at room temperature. The responsivity is 523 VW/sup -1/ in the waveband 8-14 /spl mu/m with nickel absorber under a bias voltage 1.5 V.     

Unidirectional SAW transducer for gigahertz frequencies

A single-phase unidirectional transducer (SPUDT) structure using /spl lambda//4 and wider electrodes is introduced. The considerable difference between the reflectivity of short-circuited /spl lambda//4 electrodes and that of floating /spl lambda//2-wide electrodes on 128/spl deg/ lithium niobate (LiNbO/sub 3/) is exploited. The surface acoustic wave (SAW) device operating at 2.45 GHz has critical dimensions of about 0.4 /spl mu/m, accessible for standard optical lithography.     

Development and analysis of a PCB vector 2-D magnetic field sensor system for electronic compasses

A high-sensitivity vector two-dimensional (2-D) magnetic sensor system for low magnetic field measurements has been realized and tested. The system, made in PCB technology, consists of a double-axis Fluxgate magnetic sensor and the readout electronic circuitry, based on second-harmonic detection. The amorphous magnetic materials Vitrovac 6025X (25 /spl mu/m thick) and Vitrovac 6025Z (20 /spl mu/m thick) were used as the ferromagnetic core of the sensor. By applying a sinusoidal excitation current having a 450-mA peak at 10 kHz with Vitrovac 6025Z, the measured magnetic sensitivity was about 1.25 mV//spl mu/T. This value seems to be adequate for the Earth's magnetic field detection (/spl plusmn/60 /spl mu/T). The full-scale linearity error was about 1.5%. By using the thicker Vitrovac 6025X and a sinusoidal excitation current having a 600-mA peak at 10 kHz, a maximum sensitivity of approximately 1.68 mV//spl mu/T with a linearity error of about 1.55% full scale in the range of /spl plusmn/60 /spl mu/T were measured. Due to the use of commercially available ferromagnetic materials, the vector 2-D magnetic sensor system presented is characterized by a very simple fabrication process, thus allowing low-cost devices to be designed.     

Vertical single-crystal ZnO nanowires grown on ZnO:Ga/glass templates

Vertical single-crystal ZnO nanowires with uniform diameter and uniform length were selectively grown on ZnO:Ga/glass templates at 600/spl deg/C by a self-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid process without any metal catalyst. It was found that the ZnO nanowires are grown preferred oriented in the [002] direction with a small X-ray diffraction full-width half-maximum. Photoluminescence, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements also confirmed good crystal quality of our ZnO nanowires. Field emitters using these ZnO nanowires were also fabricated. It was found that threshold field of the fabricated field emitters was 14 V//spl mu/m. With an applied electric field of 24 V//spl mu/m, it was found that the emission current density was around 0.1 mA/cm/sup 2/.     

50-nm fully depleted SOI CMOS technology with HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectric and TiN gate

In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time CMOS thin-film metal gate FDSOI devices using HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectric at the 50-nm physical gate length. Symmetric V/sub T/ is achieved for long-channel nMOS and pMOS devices using midgap TiN single metal gate with undoped channel and high-k dielectric. The devices show excellent performance with a I/sub on/=500 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m and I/sub off/=10 nA//spl mu/m at V/sub DD/=1.2 V for nMOSFET and I/sub on/=212 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m and I/sub off/=44 pA//spl mu/m at V/sub DD/=-1.2 V for pMOSFET, with a CET=30 /spl Aring/ and a gate length of 50 nm. DIBL and SS values as low as 70 mV/V nand 77 mV/dec, respectively, are obtained with a silicon film thickness of 14 nm. Ring oscillators with 15 ps stage delay at V/sub DD/=1.2 V are also realized.     

Spin-transfer switching current distribution and reduction in magnetic tunneling junction-based structures

Spin transfer switching current distribution within a cell and switching current reduction were studied at room temperature for magnetic tunnel junction-based structures with resistance area product (RA) ranged from 10 to 30 /spl Omega/-/spl mu/m/sup 2/ and TMR of 15%-30%. These were patterned into current perpendicular to plane configured nanopillars having elliptical cross sections of area /spl sim/0.02 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. The width of the critical current distribution (sigma/average of distribution), measured using 30 ms current pulse, was found to be 3% for cells with thermal factor (KuV/k/sub B/T) of 65. An analytical expression for probability density function p(I/I/sub c0/) was derived considering a thermally activated spin transfer model, which supports the experimental observation that the thermal factor is the most significant parameter in determining the within-cell critical current distribution. Spin-transfer switching current reduction was investigated through enhancing effective spin polarization factor /spl eta//sub eff/ in magnetic tunnel junction-based dual spin filter (DSF) structures. The intrinsic switching current density (J/sub c0/) was estimated by extrapolating experimental data of critical current density (J/sub c/) versus pulse width (/spl tau/), to a pulse width of 1 ns. A reduction in intrinsic switching current density for a dual spin filter (DSF: Ta/PtMn/CoFe/Ru/CoFeB/Al2O3/CoFeB/spacer/CoFe/PtMn/Ta) was observed compared to single magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ: Ta/PtMn/CoFe/Ru/CoFeB/Al2O3/CoFeB/Ta). J/sub c/ at /spl tau/ of 1 ns (/spl sim/J/sub c0/) for the MTJ and DSF samples were 7/spl times/10/sup 6/ and 2.2/spl times/10/sup 6/ A/cm/sup 2/, respectively, for identical free layers. Thus, a significant enhancement of the spin transfer switching efficiency is seen for DSF structure compared to the single MTJ case.     

Effects of electrode configuration on polymer carbon-black composite chemical vapor sensor performance

The performance of polymer carbon-black composite chemical vapor sensors as a function of underlying electrode size and geometry has been studied. The sensor performance parameters investigated were sensor response magnitude to a toluene analyte (100, 500, and 1000 ppm), fundamental sensor noise in the presence of air, and two concentrations of toluene (100 and 500 ppm), and signal-to-noise ratio (100 and 500 ppm). An array of sensors with 42 different circular electrode configurations were designed, fabricated, and tested where electrode gap was varied from 10 to 500 /spl mu/m and the diameter of the sensors was varied from 30 to 2000 /spl mu/m. Each array of electrodes was coated with an approximately 1 /spl mu/m-thick layer of conducting polymer carbon-black composite with an insulating poly(alkylacrylate) polymer. The response magnitude, fundamental noise, and signal-to-noise ratio of each sensor was measured and compared to electrode geometry, such as electrode gap, aspect ratio, and overall size. No significant dependence of sensor response magnitude and noise to electrode configuration has been observed to be larger than the variation from sensor to sensor. However, the signal-to-noise ratio tended to decrease for sensors with the smallest scales.     

Laser ablation patterning by interference induces directional cell growth

Laser-patterning by interference is a method to introduce micropatterns on the surface of TXL and TXB, which were shown to have an effect on the L929 growth. In this experiment, we have produced collagen-coated and laser-patterned TXL and TXB with different dimensions; the groove width of the line patterns varied approximately from 1.2 /spl mu/m to 9.7 /spl mu/m, ridge depth varied from 0.4 /spl mu/m to 1.3 /spl mu/m, and the groove depth varied between 0.4 /spl mu/m and 1.3 /spl mu/m. Therefore, a homogeneous smooth surface was achieved, and that L929 growth was only affected by the different dimensions of the line patterns. All the laser-patterned TXL and TXB have shown inducing different degrees of directional growth of L929 that the cells grew in the direction aligning the microgrooves. However, the different widths of the microgrooves were demonstrated to play an important role in determining cell morphology and growth orientation. For example, cells were elongated when they grew on the narrower widths, which were 1.26 /spl mu/m, 1.91 /spl mu/m, and 5.04 /spl mu/m while cells tended to be triangular when grew on wider width about 9.76 /spl mu/m. In addition, L929 might grow only on the top of the laser-patterns attaching the ridges when the groove widths were narrow, but might grow into the microgrooves when the width went beyond 5.04 /spl mu/m.     

Giant magnetoresistance, microstructure, and application characteristics of amorphous CoNbZr-based pseudo-spin valves

We have fabricated pseudo-spin-valve (PSV) multilayers with amorphous CoNbZr alloy as a soft magnetic layer and a buffer layer by magnetron sputtering. We investigated the multilayers' giant magnetoresistance (GMR), microstructure,thermal annealing effects, and application characteristics. Our results show that the film microstructure, consequently the magnetostatic coupling effect and the magnetization reversal process, strongly depends on the CoNbZr thickness. We observed antiparallel magnetization alignments in the samples with a 2-4nm CoNbZr layer and a measured maximum GMR ratio of 6.5%. The PSV with 4 nm CoNbZr has a superior thermal stability to 400 /spl deg/C as a result of the dense and homogeneous Cu spacer. After patterning with a 6 /spl mu/m/spl times/1 /spl mu/m elliptic stripe, the structure forms a single domain. The dynamic GMR behavior under a 10 kHz sinusoidal magnetic field indicates the patterned stripe has a linear and stable GMR response. We therefore believe that PSVs with amorphous CoNbZr have good potential for spintronic devices.     

A microfabricated biosensor for detecting foodborne bioterrorism agents

A biosensor for the detection of pathogenic bacteria was developed for biosecurity applications. The sensor was fabricated using photolithography and incorporates heterobifunctional crosslinkers and immobilized antibodies. The sensor detected the change in impedance caused by the presence of bacteria immobilized on interdigitated gold electrodes and was fabricated from (100) silicon with a 2-/spl mu/m layer of thermal oxide as an insulating layer. The sensor has a large active area of 9.6 mm/sup 2/ and consists of two interdigital gold electrode arrays each measuring 0.8 /spl times/ 6 mm. Pathogenic Escherichia coli and Salmonella infantis were tested in serially diluted pure culture. Analyte specific antibodies were immobilized to the oxide between the electrodes to create a biological sensing surface. After immersing the biosensor in solution, the impedance across the interdigital electrodes was measured. Bacteria cells present in the sample solution attached to the antibodies and became tethered to the electrode array thereby causing a change in measured impedance. The biosensor was able to discriminate between different cellular concentrations from 10/sup 4/ - 10/sup 7/ CFU/mL (colony-forming units per milliliter) in solution. The sample testing process, including data acquisition, required 5 min. The design, fabrication, and testing of the biosensor is discussed along with the implications of these findings toward further biosensor development.