Photolithographic Fabrication of Micro Apertures in Dry Film Polymer Sheets for Channel Recordings in Planar Lipid Bilayers.

Planar lipid bilayers constitute a versatile method for measuring the activity of protein channels and pores on a single molecule level. Ongoing efforts attempt to tailor this method for detecting biomedically relevant target analytes or for high-throughput screening of drugs. To improve the mechanical stability of bilayer recordings, we use a thin-film epoxy resist ADEX as septum in free-standing vertical bilayers. Defined apertures with diameters between 30 µm and 100 µm were micro-fabricated by photolithography. The performance of these septa was tested by functional reconstitution of the K+ channel KcvNTS in lipid bilayers spanned over apertures in ADEX or Teflon films; the latter is conventionally used in bilayer recordings and serves as reference. We observe that the functional properties of the K+ channel are identical in both materials while ADEX provides no advantage in terms of capacitance and signal-to-noise ratio. In contrast to Teflon, however, ADEX enables long-term experimental recordings while the stability of the lipid bilayer is not compromised by pipetting solutions in and out of the recording chamber. Combined with the fact that the ADEX films can be cleaned with acetone, our results suggest that ADEX carries great potential for multiplexing bilayer chambers in robust and reusable sensing devices.

Dielectric elastomer stack actuator-based autofocus fluid lens.

Extremely small cameras and many cell phones simply do not have enough room to allow users to move a rigid lens the distance required for a varying range of focal lengths. An adaptive liquid lens, however, enables small cameras to focus without needing extra room. An autofocus liquid lens provides several advantages over a traditional lens in terms of efficiency, cost, compactness, and flexibility. But one of the main challenges in these lenses is a high driving voltage requirement of around at least 1.8 kV. In this paper, we propose a new design of a liquid lens based on a dielectric elastomer stack actuator (DESA), which significantly overcomes the aforementioned existing problem. The lens consists of a frame (a thin DESA membrane with a hole in the middle), silicon oil, and water. A voltage range is applied on the membrane in order to change the hole dimension. Due to change of hole dimension, a change in meniscus occurs that changes the focal length of the lens. In this research work, various experimental results are achieved by configuring two DESA with different active areas. Depending on the active area of the membrane, the length of the laser beam on the plane varies from 6 to 35 mm, and the driving voltage is in the range of 50-750 V.

Ultrasonic resonant piezoelectric actuator with intrinsic torque measurement.

Piezoelectric ultrasonic actuators are widely used in small-scale actuation systems, in which a closed-loop position control is usually utilized. To save an additional torque sensor, the intrinsic measurement capabilities of the piezoelectric material can be employed. To prove feasibility, a motor setup with clearly separated actuation for the friction and driving forces is chosen. The motor concept is based on resonant ultrasonic vibrations. To assess the effects of the direct piezoelectric effect, a capacitance bridge-type circuit has been selected. Signal processing is done by a measurement card with an integrated field-programmable gate array. The motor is used to drive a winch, and different torques are applied by means of weights to be lifted. Assessing the bridge voltage, a good proportionality to the applied torque of 1.47 mV/mN·m is shown. A hysteresis of 1% has been determined. The chosen motor concept is useful for intrinsic torque measurement. However, it provides drawbacks in terms of limited mechanical performance, wear, and thermal losses because of the soft piezoelectric material. Future work will comprise the application of the method to commercially available piezoelectric actuators as well as the implementation of the measurement circuit in an embedded system.

Combined simulation of a micro permanent magnetic linear contactless displacement sensor.

The permanent magnetic linear contactless displacement (PLCD) sensor is a new type of displacement sensor operating on the magnetic inductive principle. It has many excellent properties and has already been used for many applications. In this article a Micro-PLCD sensor which can be used for microelectromechanical system (MEMS) measurements is designed and simulated with the CST EM STUDIO(®) software, including building a virtual model, magnetostatic calculations, low frequency calculations, steady current calculations and thermal calculations. The influence of some important parameters such as air gap dimension, working frequency, coil current and eddy currents etc. is studied in depth.