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Rapid creation of devices with microscale features is a vital step in the commercialization of a wide variety of technologies, such as microfluidics, fuel cells and self-healing materials. The current standard for creating many of these microstructured devices utilizes the inexpensive, flexible material poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to replicate microstructured molds. This process is inexpensive and fast for small batches of devices, but lacks scalability and the ability to produce large surface-area materials. The novel fabrication process presented in this paper uses a cylindrical mold with microscale surface patterns to cure liquid PDMS prepolymer into continuous microstructured films. Results show that this process can create continuous sheets of micropatterned devices at a rate of 1.9 in2/sec (~1200 mm2/sec), almost an order of magnitude faster than soft lithography, while still retaining submicron patterning accuracy.

Theoretical and experimental results show that the performance of a load-bearing surface in hydrodynamic lubrication may be enhanced by engineering a definable surface texture onto the surface. These surface textures are in the form of protrusions (positive asperities) or cavities (negative asperities) of known size and geometry. The benefits of such surface textures include lower friction torque, higher load capacity and lower operating temperatures. This Thesis details a fabrication process to manufacture such surface textures/asperities on flat surfaces. The asperities are fabricated using a UV photolithography process followed by electroplating. A complete surface characterization is done to evaluate the effectiveness of the manufacturing process. From the characterization results, some errors in asperity geometry are identified and statistically quantified. These errors are found to be normally distributed and the random surface roughness is 1 to 3 orders of magnitude less than the deterministic feature size. The accuracy of the manufacturing process for fabricating the asperities was found to lie within 6.5 % of the desired value over all the errors studied. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is done to theoretically evaluate the effect of some of these errors in the hydrodynamic lubrication regime.

Cette étude porte sur l'intégration hybride de transistors à un électron (single-electron transistor, SET) dans un noeud technologique CMOS. Les SETs présentent de forts potentiels, en particulier en termes d'économies d'énergies, mais ne peuvent complètement remplacer le CMOS dans les circuits électriques. Cependant, la combinaison des composants SETs et MOS permet de pallier à ce problème, ouvrant la voie à des circuits à très faible puissance dissipée, et à haute densité d'intégration. Cette thèse se propose d'employer pour la réalisation de SETs dans le back-end-of-line (BEOL), c'est-à-dire dans l'oxyde encapsulant les CMOS, le procédé de fabrication nanodamascène, mis au point par C. Dubuc. Les avantages de ce procédé sont triples : capacité de créer des dispositifs SETs à large marge d'opération, répétabilité élevée, et compatibilité potentielle avec une fabrication en BEOL. Ce dernier point est particulièrement important. En effet, il ouvre la voie à la fabrication de nombreuses couches de SETs empilées les unes sur les autres et formant ainsi des circuits 3D, réalisées au-dessus d'une couche de CMOS. Ceci permettrait d'apporter une forte valeur ajoutée aux plaques de CMOS existantes. On présentera les réalisations obtenues par une adaptation du procédé nanodamascène à une fabrication en BEOL, en mettant en avant les limites rencontrées, et les perspectives d'améliorations. Des caractérisations électriques des dispositifs seront aussi présentées. Elles démontrent la fonctionnalité des dispositifs créés, et valident le transfert avec succès de la méthode nanodamascène à une fabrication en BEOL. Elles ont aussi permis d'identifier la présence d'un nombre élevé de pièges au coeur des dispositifs fabriqués. L'étude du potentiel des SETs fabriqués pour la réalisation de circuits hybride SET-CMOS a été faite au travers de simulations. D a ainsi été possible d'identifier les pistes à privilégier pour les réalisations futures de circuits hybrides.

ABSTRACT Detection of and discrimination between different nanoparticles and biomolecules are vital steps in analytical, biochemical, and diagnostic biomedical procedures used in life sciences. Synthetic micro/nanopores in solid-state membranes form an emerging class of single-molecule detectors capable of detecting and probing the properties of particles and biomolecules with high throughput and resolution: The particles or biomolecules to be analyzed are added to an electrolyte solution in one of the two reservoirs of the detector system separated by a thin membrane containing a single micro/nanopore. An outer electric field induces an open-pore ionic current (Iopen) through the pore, dragging the particles with itself. Transient changes occur when a particle slightly smaller than the pore translocates through the pore. This electrical signal can be analyzed to derive information regarding to the particle or biomolecule size and even its morphology, concentration in the solution, and the affinity for the pore. Many detectors are based on self-assembled, naturally occurring protein pores in lipid bilayer membranes. Most solid-state pore-based detectors reported in literature use artificial pores in silicon nitride or silicon oxide membranes. Applying polymers as a membrane potentially offers advantages over the aforementioned types, including good electrical insulation, improved wettability thanks to higher hydrophilicity, and long-term stable yet low-cost and disposable devices. The present study aims at exploiting such advantages by developing the proof-of-concept for a single-material, all-polymer, nanopore detector allowing the continuous variation of target pore size in the range from micrometers to a few nanometers for best pore size adaption to the biomolecules to be investigated. The research comprises materials selection, system design, development of a fabrication and assembly sequence, device fabrication, and functional device testing. Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was selected as it combines advantageous microfluidic properties know from competing materials, such as polyimide, polystyrene, polycarbonate, or polyethylene terephthalate, with outstanding micropatterning capabilities. The membrane thickness is set to be 1 µm, based on a compromise between robustness during fabrication and operation on one side, and electrochemical performance on the other. After spincoating the membrane onto a sacrificial wafer, pores with diameters of typically several hundred nanometers are patterned by electron beam lithography. In combination with thermal post processing leading to polymer reflow, diameters one order of magnitude smaller can be achieved. The present study focuses on 450 nm and 22 nm pores, respectively. Besides these pores fabricated in a top-down approach, self-assembled -hemolysin protein pores of 1.5 nm diameter are integrated in a combined top-down and bottom-up approach so that single digit, double digit, and triple digit nanometer pores are available. Systems integration is achieved by capillary-forced based release from the sacrificial substrate and the application of UV-initiated glue. Test sequences proved and qualified the device functionality: Electrical characterization was performed in aqueous KCl electrolyte solution. The devices exhibit a stable, time-independent ionic current. The current-voltage curves are linear and scale with the electrolyte concentration. System verification was performed using silica nanospheres of 100 nm and 150 nm diameter as known test particles. Translocation through a 450 nm pore induced current blockades for about 1 ms with an amplitude of 30 pA to 55 pA for 100 nm particles and in excess of 70 pA for 150 nm particles. This is in close agreement with results obtained by a mathematical model used in this study. Biomolecules relevant to many life science applications, double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were subsequently analyzed to prove the device concept. Post-processed pores of 22 nm diameter were used at 600 mV driving voltage and 0.1 molar electrolyte in a slightly acidic regime of pH = 6. Typical current blockade amplitudes for complete translocations of dsDNA are Iblock = 22 pA for a translocation time of tD = 0.2 ms, and an almost threefold current blockade (Iblock = 60 pA) for the larger BSA molecules, respectively. The results demonstrate that the PMMA-based nanopores are sensitive enough to not only detect translocating biomolecules, but to also sense them by distinguishing between different biomolecules. The molecule-specific and distinct translocation signals through the pores using both, standardized silica nanoparticles and biomolecules of different dimensions, prove the concept of an all-PMMA electrophoretic flow detector with adjustable pore diameters. Devices with pore diameters covering three orders of magnitude in the nanometer range were successfully built, tested, and characterized. The results suggest such detectors are promising candidates for biomolecule detecting applications.

Micromachined needles have been shown to successfully transport biological molecules into the body with minimal invasiveness and pain, following the insertion of needles into the skin. The aim of this research is to demonstrate that micromachined hollow polymer needle arrays fabricated using UV lithography into micromolds, a potential batch-manufacturable process, can exhibit comparable insertion and injection performance to conventional hypodermic needles for drug delivery into skin. A dual-exposure-and-single-development process flow is proposed for the above-mentioned UV lithography into micromolds approach to construct a pyramidal-tip hollow microneedle array with an integral baseplate and fluidic manifold. The developed process ultimately resulted in the ability to fabricate a 10×10 array of hollow SU-8 microneedles measuring 825 μm in height, 400 μm in width, and possessing a lumen of 120 μm in diameter. The tip diameter of the microneedles ranges from 15 μm to 25 μm. The insertion force of single needles characterized using excised porcine skin as a substrate is 2.4±1.2 N. Nevertheless, the high insertion force of 2.4 N per needle may cause a significant concern when a large number of needles are required to insert into skin for drug delivery. Conventional hypodermic needles have two key structural characteristics: a sharp beveled tip and a large side-terminated lumen. Integration of these two key characteristics of hypodermic needles into microneedle design can potentially enhance microneedle performance. To reduce the insertion force and to incorporate the two key characteristics of hypodermic needles into the design of microneedles, a new needle tip design, namely the hypodermic-needle-like design, is presented. A 6×6 array of hypodermic-needle-like microneedles of 1 mm in height, approximate 350 μm in width, and with a lumen of 150 μm in diameter is demonstrated with successful insertion of the needle array into skin and an 85% lumen openness yield. The insertion force is significantly reduced by an order of magnitude with the new needle tip design and is 0.275±0.113 N per needle, comparable to that of hypodermic needles, i.e., 0.284±0.059 N. The hypodermic-needle-like microneedles exhibit a margin of safety of 180 for successful needle insertion into skin prior to needle fracture. A successful manual fluid injection into skin using single microneedle is demonstrated. The micromachined hypodermic-needle-like polymer needle arrays presented in this dissertation are fabricated using UV lithography into micromolds, a potentially batch-manufacturable process, and exhibit comparable insertion performance to conventional hypodermic needles. Injection capability into skin is also demonstrated with a hypodermic-needle-like microneedle, illustrating the utility of these devices.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of South Australia, 1998

Electromagnetic microactuators with permanent magnets have many potential applications such as micro-energy scavengers, microswitches, micromirrors and microfluidics. However, many electromagnetic microactuator designs utilize either external permanent magnet or external coil, which do not allow tight integration to other MEMS components and further miniaturization. Furthermore, all of the available permanent magnet microfabrication technologies have some drawbacks and improvements are required. Thus the integrated monolithic electromagnetic microactuator is investigated in this project. The three main components of the electromagnetic actuator have been investigated separately. A novel microfabrication technology called ???Template printing???for the fabrication of polymer bonded permanent magnet has been investigated and developed. It is based on ???Screen printing??? which has its drawbacks on alignment accuracy and poor line definition. This is eliminated in ???Template printing??? by photolithography of the photoresist template. The shape and location of the permanent magnet is defined by the template. A new approach based on the filling of dry magnetic powder and vacuum impregnation has been developed to form the polymer bonded permanent magnet. This allows the use of short pot-life matrix material and the elimination of homogenous mixing. A monolithic electromagnetic microactuator has been fabricated successfully. It consists of a 2-layer planar copper microcoil, surface micromachined polyimide beam and Strontium ferrite/EPOFIX permanent magnet (diameter of 460 ??m and 30 ??m thickness). Large deflection in excess of 100 ??m at 35 mA driving current and magnetic force of 0.39 ??N/mA have been achieved. It compares favourably with other much larger electromagnetic actuators that have been reported. ???Template printing??? has the potential of being a low temperature batch process for the microfabrication of thick polymer bonded permanent magnets with high magnetic properties and low residual stress. The fabrication consistency and the quality of template printed magnet can be improved in future studies.

Delivery of a desired ‘active’ compound (for example, starch (as an energy substrate)) to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is most easily achieved by oral administration. Unfortunately, the efficacy of most actives is greatly reduced due to the aggressive nature of digestive enzymes and processes which occur in this environment. A commonly applied strategy to prevent deactivation of the active prior to absorption at the target site is to encapsulate the active in another ‘sacrificial’ or non-degradable polymer matrix. Traditionally, the active and matrix is processed into a microparticle format for easy oral delivery (dispersed in a liquid or paste). However, established encapsulation methods which rely on bulk-phase processing to produce these microparticles (e.g. emulsification) are far from ideal as they lack control over the final microparticle size, size distribution, composition and shape. The lack of control in the physical properties of the resultant microparticles in turn results in an inherent lack of control over the kinetics of release of the active at the target site. In contrast, recent advances in microfluidic device fabrication and methodology development have firmly proven that these new generation devices can produce monodisperse droplets and microparticles in a continuous, controllable and predictable manner. Their potential as a processing tool for the production of highly tailored microparticles for targeted delivery, however, remains to be fully explored. Both the physical and chemical (physicochemical) properties of microparticles made from a single polymer system may be altered by the deposition of one or more additional polymer layers onto the microparticle surface (for example, alternating layers of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes to produce core-shell like particles), and this method has proven to be favorable with regards to retarding the release of active compounds. However, this addition of alternate layers of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes (so called Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition or assembly) does increase the number of processing steps the particles must undergo prior to storage or delivery. Further, the overall effectiveness of this additional processing is still highly dependent on the properties of the original (core) microparticles. In this thesis, a microfluidic technique was developed to encapsulate starch granules in alginate-based microparticles. Using this continuous technique, the size of the microparticles produced were shown to be monodisperse and reproducible. The developed microfluidic device included a drop formation section, followed by a gelation region and a transfer section, where the particles made on-chip are transferred from the carrier oil phase to an aqueous phase prior to collection. The microparticles collected from this microfluidic device were found to be stable for several weeks and in stark contrast to particles produced via a standard bulk emulsification routes, no aggregation was observed over this time frame. The release profile of glucose (as a result of starch hydrolysation) from microparticles produced using both a standard bulk emulsification method and the developed microfluidic-based method were compared. It was found that the monodisperse particles produced using the microfluidic method showed significantly more retardation to release compared to the glucose release profile from bulk-processed particles. This retardation effect was more pronounced when a thin layer of an oppositely charged polyelectrolyte (chitosan) was adsorbed onto the negatively charged surface (alginate is an anionic polyelectrolyte) of the microfluidic-processed microparticle. The microfluidic device developed within this thesis and the resulting tailored microparticles thus show significant potential with regards to offering a new generation of microparticle delivery systems with highly deterministic delivery over extended lifetimes.

Delivery of a desired ‘active’ compound (for example, starch (as an energy substrate)) to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is most easily achieved by oral administration. Unfortunately, the efficacy of most actives is greatly reduced due to the aggressive nature of digestive enzymes and processes which occur in this environment. A commonly applied strategy to prevent deactivation of the active prior to absorption at the target site is to encapsulate the active in another ‘sacrificial’ or non-degradable polymer matrix. Traditionally, the active and matrix is processed into a microparticle format for easy oral delivery (dispersed in a liquid or paste). However, established encapsulation methods which rely on bulk-phase processing to produce these microparticles (e.g. emulsification) are far from ideal as they lack control over the final microparticle size, size distribution, composition and shape. The lack of control in the physical properties of the resultant microparticles in turn results in an inherent lack of control over the kinetics of release of the active at the target site. In contrast, recent advances in microfluidic device fabrication and methodology development have firmly proven that these new generation devices can produce monodisperse droplets and microparticles in a continuous, controllable and predictable manner. Their potential as a processing tool for the production of highly tailored microparticles for targeted delivery, however, remains to be fully explored. Both the physical and chemical (physicochemical) properties of microparticles made from a single polymer system may be altered by the deposition of one or more additional polymer layers onto the microparticle surface (for example, alternating layers of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes to produce core-shell like particles), and this method has proven to be favorable with regards to retarding the release of active compounds. However, this addition of alternate layers of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes (so called Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition or assembly) does increase the number of processing steps the particles must undergo prior to storage or delivery. Further, the overall effectiveness of this additional processing is still highly dependent on the properties of the original (core) microparticles. In this thesis, a microfluidic technique was developed to encapsulate starch granules in alginate-based microparticles. Using this continuous technique, the size of the microparticles produced were shown to be monodisperse and reproducible. The developed microfluidic device included a drop formation section, followed by a gelation region and a transfer section, where the particles made on-chip are transferred from the carrier oil phase to an aqueous phase prior to collection. The microparticles collected from this microfluidic device were found to be stable for several weeks and in stark contrast to particles produced via a standard bulk emulsification routes, no aggregation was observed over this time frame. The release profile of glucose (as a result of starch hydrolysation) from microparticles produced using both a standard bulk emulsification method and the developed microfluidic-based method were compared. It was found that the monodisperse particles produced using the microfluidic method showed significantly more retardation to release compared to the glucose release profile from bulk-processed particles. This retardation effect was more pronounced when a thin layer of an oppositely charged polyelectrolyte (chitosan) was adsorbed onto the negatively charged surface (alginate is an anionic polyelectrolyte) of the microfluidic-processed microparticle. The microfluidic device developed within this thesis and the resulting tailored microparticles thus show significant potential with regards to offering a new generation of microparticle delivery systems with highly deterministic delivery over extended lifetimes.