A low temperature Co-fired ceramic-based dielectrophoretic device for manipulating micro and nanostructure materials.

A dielectophoretic (DEP) device fabricated by a conventional low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) process, for manipulating micro and nanostructure materials, such as spherical polystyrene microspheres, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotubes, and silver (Ag) nanowires, is described. To generate a non-uniform electric field, a castellated electrode configuration was applied to the LTCC-based DEP device using a screen printing method. The actual motions of the micro and nanostructure materials under both a positive and a negative DEP force were observed in detail and the findings compared with numerical simulation data for the electric field distribution. The performance of the LTCC-based DEP device for separating and trapping was evaluated and potential applications are discussed.

Manipulation of TiO2 Nanotubes in a Transparent Dielectrophoretic Device.

A DEP device with a transparent oxide thin film electrode was fabricated by a photolithography process and sputtering deposition with indium tin oxide (ITO). In order to form a fine ITO electrode pattern, we manipulated the negative slope using a photoresist by controlling the intensity of the ultra-violet radiation and the exposure time. In this study, the motions of a 1 microm polystyrene sphere and TiO2 nanotube were observed as a function of the applied voltage and the frequency. The findings confirm that TiO2 nanotubes can be manipulated by a p-DEP force and that they can be effectively aligned under conditions of 10 V(p-p) at 750 Hz.