Tuning a racetrack ring resonator by an integrated dielectric MEMS cantilever.

The principle, fabrication and characterization of a dielectric MEMS cantilever located a few 100 nm above a racetrack ring resonator are presented. After fabrication of the resonators on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers in a foundry process, the cantilevers were integrated by surface micromachining techniques. Off-state deflections of the cantilevers have been optimized to appropriately position them near the evanescent field of the resonator. Using electrostatic actuation, moving the cantilevers into this evanescent field, the propagation properties of the ring waveguide are modulated. We demonstrate 122 pm tuning of the resonance wavelength of the optical ring resonator (in the optical C-band) without change of the optical quality factor, on application of 9 V to a 40 µm long cantilever. This compact integrated device can be used for tuning/switching a specific wavelength, with very little energy for operation and negligible cross talk with surrounding devices.

Chemically anisotropic single-crystalline silicon nanotetrahedra.

We describe a method based on silicon micromachining to machine single-crystalline silicon nanoparticles bounded by (111) faces in the form of tetrahedra. The technology allows the fabrication of tetrahedra in a size range from 20 to 1000 nm side length, and gives the possibility to chemically modify sites (faces, edges and/or tips) within certain limits. The chemical modification is anticipated to facilitate the self-assembly into new supermaterials such as photonic crystals in the diamond lattice.

Transition flow through an ultra-thin nanosieve.

The fabrication and gas flow characterization of an ultra-thin inorganic nanosieve structured by interference lithography and a bond-micromachining approach are reported. The nanosieve has been observed to exhibit transition gas flow behaviour around atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature. The small lip thickness (45 nm) of the nanopores with respect to their diameter (120 nm) helps in understanding pure transition flow by minimizing interactions between the molecule and inner pore wall. Due to the absence of these collisions, the transition flux is the superimposition of viscous and molecular fluxes without the need for higher-order slip correction. The nanosieve shows a flow selectivity of 3.1 between helium and argon at 20 mbar.

High frequency pressure oscillator for microcryocoolers.

Microminiature pulse tube cryocoolers should operate at a frequency of an order higher than the conventional macro ones because the pulse tube cryocooler operating frequency scales inversely with the square of the pulse tube diameter. In this paper, the design and experiments of a high frequency pressure oscillator is presented with the aim to power a micropulse tube cryocooler operating between 300 and 80 K, delivering a cooling power of 10 mW. Piezoelectric actuators operate efficiently at high frequencies and have high power density making them good candidates as drivers for high frequency pressure oscillator. The pressure oscillator described in this work consists of a membrane driven by a piezoelectric actuator. A pressure ratio of about 1.11 was achieved with a filling pressure of 2.5 MPa and compression volume of about 22.6 mm(3) when operating the actuator with a peak-to-peak sinusoidal voltage of 100 V at a frequency of 1 kHz. The electrical power input was 2.73 W. The high pressure ratio and low electrical input power at high frequencies would herald development of microminiature cryocoolers.

Scanning electron microscopic, transmission electron microscopic, and confocal laser scanning microscopic observation of fibroblasts cultured on microgrooved surfaces of bulk titanium substrata.

During this study, microtechnology and plasma etching were used to produce gratings 1.0 (TiD01), 2.0 (TiD02), 5.0 (TiD05), and 10.0 microns wide (TiD10) into commercially pure titanium wafers. After incubation of rat dermal fibroblast (RDFs) on these surfaces for 3 days, the cells were observed with scanning electron (SEM), transmission electron (TEM), and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Results showed that the RDFs as a whole and their stress fibers oriented strictly parallel to the surface pattern on the TiD01 and TiD02 surfaces. On the TiD05 and TiD10 surfaces, this orientation was not observed. In addition, TEM and CLSM demonstrated that the focal adhesion points (FAP) were located mainly on the surface pattern ridges. TEM revealed that FAP were wrapped occasionally around the edges of the ridges. Only the RDFs on both the TiD05 and TiD10 surfaces protruded into the grooves and possessed FAP on the walls of the grooves. Attachment to the groove floor was observed only on the TiD10 textures. Comparison of these results with earlier observations on microtextured silicone rubber substrata suggests that material-specific properties do not influence the orientational effect of the surface texture on the observed RDF cellular behavior. The proliferation rate of the RDFs, however, seems to be much higher on titanium than on silicone rubber substrata.