The objectives of this thesis are to explore, design, fabricate and implement the use of advanced micro-engineered platforms to be exploited as versatile, novel device technologies. An increasing number of technologies require the fabrication of conductive structures on a broad range of scales and large areas. Here, we introduce advanced yet simple electrohydrodynamic lithography for patterning conductive polymers directly on a substrate with high-fidelity. We illustrate the generality of this robust, low-cost method by structuring thin films via electric-field-induced instabilities, yielding well-defined conductive structures with a broad range of feature sizes. We show the feasibility of the polypyrrole-based structures for field-effect transistors, which might herald a route towards submicron device applications. We also demonstrate a miniaturised platform technology for timely, sensitive and rapid point-of-care diagnostics of disease-indicative biomarkers. Our micro-engineered device technology (MEDTech) is based on reproducible electrohydrodynamically fabricated platforms for surface enhanced Raman scattering enabling tuneable, high-throughput nanostructures yielding high-signal enhancements. These, integrated within a microfluidic-chip provide cost-effective, portable devices for detection of miniscule biomarker concentrations from biofluids, offering clinical tests that are simple, rapid and minimally invasive. Using MEDTech to analyse clinical blood-plasma, we deliver a prognostic tool for long-term outcomes, in the hospital or at the point-of-care.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:753055 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Rickard, Jonathan James Stanley |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/8303/ |
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