Imaging of voltage-controlled switching of magnetization in highly magnetostrictive epitaxial Fe-Ga microstructures.

The magnetoelectric behavior of epitaxial Fe-Ga microstructures on top of a (001)-oriented PMN-PT piezoelectric substrate is imaged with magnetic X-ray microscopy. Additionally, the micron-scale strain distribution in PMN-PT is characterized by X-ray microdiffraction and examined with respect to the results of the Fe-Ga magnetoelectric switching. The magnetic reorientation of Fe-Ga is found to be strongly correlated with size, shape, and crystallographic orientation of the microstructures. In the case of square-shaped structures, size dictates the influence of the strain distribution on both the initialization of the ground state and on the magnetic reorientation during application of voltage. On the other hand, elliptical microstructures demonstrate completely different magnetic responses depending on the relative orientation of their long axis with respect to the crystallographic directions of the PMN-PT. This study demonstrates that engineering the behavior of highly magnetostrictive epitaxial microdevices is possible. It further elucidates that voltage-induced actuation can be largely tuned to achieve the desired type of magnetic switching ranging from vortex circulation reversal, domain wall motion, to a large rotation of magnetization. Because of the outstanding properties of the investigated material system, the reported findings are expected to be of great interest for the realization of next-generation energy-efficient magnetic memory and logic devices.

Flexible in-cavity MRI receiving coil for ultra-high-resolution imaging of the pituitary gland.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was the preclinical design and construction of a flexible intrasphenoid coil aiming for submillimeter resolution of the human pituitary gland. METHODS: Sphenoid sinus measurements determined coil design constraints for use in > 95% of adult patients. Temperature safety parameters were tested. The 2-cm-diameter coil prototype was positioned in the sphenoid sinus of cadaveric human heads utilizing the transnasal endoscopic approach that is used clinically. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was estimated for the transnasal coil prototype compared with a standard clinical head coil. One cadaveric pituitary gland was explanted and histologically examined for correlation to the imaging findings. RESULTS: With the coil positioned directly atop the sella turcica at a 0° angle of the B0 static field, the craniocaudal distance (21.2 ± 0.8 mm) was the limiting constraint. Phantom experiments showed no detectable change in temperature at two sites over 15 minutes. The flexible coil was placed transnasally in cadaveric specimens using an endoscopic approach. The image quality was subjectively superior at higher spatial resolutions relative to that with the commercial 20-channel head coil. An average 17-fold increase in the SNR was achieved within the pituitary gland. Subtle findings visualized only with the transnasal coil had potential pathological correlation with immunohistochemical findings. CONCLUSIONS: A transnasal radiofrequency coil feasibly provides a 17-fold boost in the SNR at 3 T. The ability to safely improve the quality of pituitary imaging may be helpful in the identification and subsequent resection of small functional pituitary lesions.

Energy Efficient All-Electric-Field-Controlled Multiferroic Magnetic Domain-Wall Logic.

Magnetic domain wall (DW)-based logic devices offer numerous opportunities for emerging electronics applications allowing superior performance characteristics such as fast motion, high density, and nonvolatility to process information. However, these devices rely on an external magnetic field, which limits their implementation; this is particularly problematic in large-scale applications. Multiferroic systems consisting of a piezoelectric substrate coupled with ferromagnets provide a potential solution that provides the possibility of controlling magnetization through an electric field via magnetoelastic coupling. Strain-induced magnetization anisotropy tilting can influence the DW motion in a controllable way. We demonstrate a method to perform all-electrical logic operations using such a system. Ferromagnetic coupling between neighboring magnetic domains induced by the electric-field-controlled strain has been exploited to promote noncollinear spin alignment, which is used for realizing essential building blocks, including DW generation, propagation, and pinning, in all implementations of Boolean logic, which will pave the way for scalable memory-in-logic applications.

Single-Domain Multiferroic Array-Addressable Terfenol-D (SMArT) Micromagnets for Programmable Single-Cell Capture and Release.

Programming magnetic fields with microscale control can enable automation at the scale of single cells ≈10 µm. Most magnetic materials provide a consistent magnetic field over time but the direction or field strength at the microscale is not easily modulated. However, magnetostrictive materials, when coupled with ferroelectric material (i.e., strain-mediated multiferroics), can undergo magnetization reorientation due to voltage-induced strain, promising refined control of magnetization at the micrometer-scale. This work demonstrates the largest single-domain microstructures (20 µm) of Terfenol-D (Tb0.3 Dy0.7 Fe1.92 ), a material that has the highest magnetostrictive strain of any known soft magnetoelastic material. These Terfenol-D microstructures enable controlled localization of magnetic beads with sub-micrometer precision. Magnetically labeled cells are captured by the field gradients generated from the single-domain microstructures without an external magnetic field. The magnetic state on these microstructures is switched through voltage-induced strain, as a result of the strain-mediated converse magnetoelectric effect, to release individual cells using a multiferroic approach. These electronically addressable micromagnets pave the way for parallelized multiferroics-based single-cell sorting under digital control for biotechnology applications.

Capturing magnetic bead-based arrays using perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

Designing and implementing means of locally trapping magnetic beads and understanding the factors underlying the bead capture force are important steps toward advancing the capture-release process of magnetic particles for biological applications. In particular, capturing magnetically labeled cells using magnetic microstructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) will enable an approach to cell manipulation for emerging lab-on-a-chip devices. Here, a Co (0.2 nm)/Ni (0.4 nm) multilayered structure was designed to exhibit strong PMA and large saturation magnetization (M s ). Finite element simulations were performed to assess the dependence of the capture force on the value of M s . The simulated force profile indicated the largest force at the perimeter of the disks. Arrays of Co/Ni disk structures of (4-7) µm diameter were fabricated and tested in a microchannel with suspended fluorescent magnetic beads. The magnetic beads were captured and localized to the edge of the disks as predicted by the simulations. This approach has been demonstrated to enable uniform assembly of magnetic beads without external fields and may provide a pathway toward precise cell manipulation methods.

Non-planar PDMS microfluidic channels and actuators: a review.

This review examines the state of the art for manufacturing non-planar miniature channels and actuators from PDMS, where non-planar structures are defined here as those beyond simple extrusions of 2D designs, either with rounded or variable cross sections or with an emergence of the channel trajectory out-of-plane. The motivation for 3D PDMS structures and advances in their fabrication are described, focusing on geometries that were previously unachievable through conventional microfabrication. The motivation for non-planar microfluidic channels and actuators is first discussed and the existing literature is grouped into general fabrication themes and described. The structures are organized by their method of fabrication and evaluated based on their relevant properties, including the capability of producing structures with complex geometry, automation of the fabrication process, and minimum feature size. Additional properties are included for work in the more recently emerging field of non-planar PDMS actuators, where the feature size, actuation stroke, and actuation method are the key parameters of interest. In particular, this review considers the impact from recent advances in additive manufacturing, which now allow creation of truly arbitrary 3D structures down to ∼100 µm size scales.

Dielectrophoresis-assembled zeolitic imidazolate framework nanoparticle-coupled resonators for highly sensitive and selective gas detection.

This work reports on zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-coupled microscale resonators for highly sensitive and selective gas detection. The combination of microscale resonators and nanoscale materials simultaneously permits the benefit of larger capture area for adsorption from the resonator and enhanced surface adsorption capacity from the nanoscale ZIF structure. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) was demonstrated as a novel method for directly assembling concentrated ZIF nanoparticles on targeted regions of silicon resonant sensors. As part of the dielectrophoretic assembly process, the first ever measurements of the Clausius-Mossotti factor for ZIFs were conducted to determine optimal conditions for DEP assembly. The first ever real-time adsorption measurements of ZIFs were also performed to investigate the possibility of inherent gas selectivity. The ZIF-coupled resonators demonstrated sensitivity improvement up to 150 times over a bare silicon resonator with identical dimensions, and real-time adsorption measurements of ZIFs revealed different adsorption time constants for IPA and CO2.

Fabrication of a thin-film capacitive force sensor array for tactile feedback in robotic surgery.

Although surgical robotic systems provide several advantages over conventional minimally invasive techniques, they are limited by a lack of tactile feedback. Recent research efforts have successfully integrated tactile feedback components onto surgical robotic systems, and have shown significant improvement to surgical control during in vitro experiments. The primary barrier to the adoption of tactile feedback in clinical use is the unavailability of suitable force sensing technologies. This paper describes the design and fabrication of a thin-film capacitive force sensor array that is intended for integration with tactile feedback systems. This capacitive force sensing technology could provide precise, high-sensitivity, real-time responses to both static and dynamic loads. Capacitive force sensors were designed to operate with optimal sensitivity and dynamic range in the range of forces typical in minimally invasive surgery (0-40 N). Initial results validate the fabrication of these capacitive force-sensing arrays. We report 16.3 pF and 146 pF for 1-mm(2) and 9-mm(2) capacitive areas, respectively, whose values are within 3% of theoretical predictions.

A stacked memory device on logic 3D technology for ultra-high-density data storage.

We have demonstrated, for the first time, a novel three-dimensional (3D) memory chip architecture of stacked-memory-devices-on-logic (SMOL) achieving up to 95% of cell-area efficiency by directly building up memory devices on top of front-end CMOS devices. In order to realize the SMOL, a unique 3D Flash memory device and vertical integration structure have been successfully developed. The SMOL architecture has great potential to achieve tera-bit level memory density by stacking memory devices vertically and maximizing cell-area efficiency. Furthermore, various emerging devices could replace the 3D memory device to develop new 3D chip architectures.

Ultraminiature encapsulated accelerometers as a fully implantable sensor for implantable hearing aids.

Experiments were conducted to evaluate a silicon accelerometer as an implantable sound sensor for implantable hearing aids. The main motivation of this study is to find an alternative sound sensor that is implantable inside the body, yet does not suffer from the signal attenuation from the body. The merit of the accelerometer sensor as a sound sensor will be that it will utilize the natural mechanical conduction in the middle ear as a source of the vibration. With this kind of implantable sound sensor, a totally implantable hearing aid is feasible. A piezoresistive silicon accelerometer that is completely encapsulated with a thin silicon film and long flexible flex-circuit electrical cables were used for this study. The sensor is attached on the middle ear ossicles and measures the vibration transmitted from the tympanic membrane due to the sound in the ear canal. In this study, the sensor is fully characterized on a human cadaveric temporal bone preparation.