Silicon etching using only Oxygen at high temperature: An alternative approach to Si micro-machining on 150 mm Si wafers.

Using a combination of low-pressure oxygen and high temperatures, isotropic and anisotropic silicon (Si) etch rates can be controlled up to ten micron per minute. By varying the process conditions, we show that the vertical-to-lateral etch rate ratio can be controlled from 1:1 isotropic etch to 1.8:1 anisotropic. This simple Si etching technique combines the main respective advantages of both wet and dry Si etching techniques such as fast Si etch rate, stiction-free, and high etch rate uniformity across a wafer. In addition, this alternative O2-based Si etching technique has additional advantages not commonly associated with dry etchants such as avoiding the use of halogens and has no toxic by-products, which improves safety and simplifies waste disposal. Furthermore, this process also exhibits very high selectivity (>1000:1) with conventional hard masks such as silicon carbide, silicon dioxide and silicon nitride, enabling deep Si etching. In these initial studies, etch rates as high as 9.2 µm/min could be achieved at 1150 °C. Empirical estimation for the calculation of the etch rate as a function of the feature size and oxygen flow rate are presented and used as proof of concepts.

Vertically Conductive Single-Crystal SiC-Based Bragg Reflector Grown on Si Wafer.

Single-crystal silicon carbide (SiC) thin-films on silicon (Si) were used for the fabrication and characterization of electrically conductive distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) on 100 mm Si wafers. The DBRs, each composed of 3 alternating layers of SiC and Al(Ga)N grown on Si substrates, show high wafer uniformity with a typical maximum reflectance of 54% in the blue spectrum and a stopband (at 80% maximum reflectance) as large as 100 nm. Furthermore, high vertical electrical conduction is also demonstrated resulting to a density of current exceeding 70 A/cm(2) above 1.5 V. Such SiC/III-N DBRs with high thermal and electrical conductivities could be used as pseudo-substrate to enhance the efficiency of SiC-based and GaN-based optoelectronic devices on large Si wafers.

Optoelectronic tweezers system for single cell manipulation and fluorescence imaging of live immune cells.

A compact optoelectronic tweezers system for combined cell manipulation and analysis is presented. CMOS-controlled gallium nitride micro-LED arrays are used to provide simultaneous spatio-temporal control of dielectrophoresis traps within an optoelectronic tweezers device and fluorescence imaging of contrasting dye labelled cells. This capability provides direct identification, selection and controlled interaction of single T-lymphocytes and dendritic cells. The trap strength and profile for two emission wavelengths of micro-LED array have been measured and a maximum trapping force of 13.1 and 7.6 pN was achieved for projected micro-LED devices emitting at λmax 520 and 450 nm, respectively. A potential application in biological research is demonstrated through the controlled interaction of live immune cells where there is potential for this method of OET to be implemented as a compact device.

Thermal and optical characterization of micro-LED probes for in vivo optogenetic neural stimulation.

Within optogenetics there is a need for compact light sources that are capable of delivering light with excellent spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution to deep brain structures. Here, we demonstrate a custom GaN-based LED probe for such applications and the electrical, optical, and thermal properties are analyzed. The output power density and emission spectrum were found to be suitable for stimulating channelrhodopsin-2, one of the most common light-sensitive proteins currently used in optogenetics. The LED device produced high light intensities, far in excess of those required to stimulate the light-sensitive proteins within the neurons. Thermal performance was also investigated, illustrating that a broad range of operating regimes in pulsed mode are accessible while keeping a minimum increase in temperature for the brain (0.5°C). This type of custom device represents a significant step forward for the optogenetics community, allowing multiple bright excitation sites along the length of a minimally invasive neural probe.

Emission characteristics of photonic crystal light-emitting diodes.

Experimentally measured optical properties of photonic crystal LEDs are reported here. Photonic crystal and photonic quasi-crystal structures were fabricated on GaN epilayer LED wafer material using both direct-write electron beam lithography and nanoimprint lithography. Some of these structures were processed to make finished LEDs. Both electroluminescence and photoluminescence measurements were performed on these structures. Devices were characterized for their current-voltage characteristics, emission spectra, far-field emission pattern, and angular emission pattern. These results are useful for fabricating photonic crystal LEDs and assessing their operational properties.

Miniaturized optoelectronic tweezers controlled by GaN micro-pixel light emitting diode arrays.

A novel, miniaturized optoelectronic tweezers (OET) system has been developed using a CMOS-controlled GaN micro-pixelated light emitting diode (LED) array as an integrated micro-light source. The micro-LED array offers spatio-temporal and intensity control of the emission pattern, enabling the creation of reconfigurable virtual electrodes to achieve OET. In order to analyse the mechanism responsible for particle manipulation in this OET system, the average particle velocity, electrical field and forces applied to the particles were characterized and simulated. The capability of this miniaturized OET system for manipulating and trapping multiple particles including polystyrene beads and live cells has been successfully demonstrated.