Photonic Doppler velocimetry for high-speed fragment generator measurements.

We developed a modified photonic Doppler velocimetry (PDV) configuration which possesses the ability to record wide-range velocity information to evaluate composite material fracture behavior. With the laminate and tunnel design of a fragment generator, the controllable parameters such as fragment size and applied voltage can provide the flexibility for dynamic evaluation under different momentum conditions. We obtained velocity profiles using continuous wavelet transforms and by using our proposed velocity line tracing algorithm. Simulated heterodyne signals and surface morphology of fractures were examined to verify the heterodyne signals. We observed that the obtained tunnel-end velocity of the fragment generator was proportional to the applied voltage.

Data on a new sensitivity-improved miniaturized label-free electrochemical biosensor.

This article presents a new sensitivity-improved electrochemical measurement architecture for cardiovascular disease (CVD) diagnosis by detecting CVD biomarkers, S100 beta protein and C-reactive protein (CRP). The new architecture includes a design for a new electrochemical measurement set-up, which improves the reaction conditions of chemical and biological molecules and incorporates a newly biochip design. With the new architecture, electrochemical measurement experiments were undertaken. The results obtained are related to the research article entitled "Improving sensitivity of a miniaturized label-free electrochemical biosensor using zigzag electrodes" [1].

Improving sensitivity of a miniaturized label-free electrochemical biosensor using zigzag electrodes.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death among chronic diseases worldwide. Therefore, it is important to be able to detect CVD biomarkers early so that patients can be diagnosed properly and begin treatment as soon as possible. To detect biomarkers more conveniently, point-of-care (PoC) biosensors, which are easy to use and are of low cost, are becoming even more necessary. This paper focuses on developing a label-free electrochemical biosensor with high sensitivity for PoC applications to detect CVD biomarkers such as S100 beta proteins and C-reactive proteins (CRP). To meet the requirements of a PoC application and to improve the measurement sensitivity for detection purposes, a three-electrode configuration was miniaturized and fitted onto a biochip. Computer simulation of an electrolyte current density was used to investigate several potential effective possibilities. It was found that an electrolyte current density at an edge tip structure near the working electrode (WE) and counter electrode (CE) was higher than at other locations. A zigzag structure was then designed at the edge near the WE and CE positions. With this design, we can obtain a higher total electrolyte current. This newly-designed biochip was then used to measure the electrochemical feature. It was found that the measurement efficiency was also improved using this newly designed biochip.

Enhanced Signal and Quantitative Detection of Anti-Interferon-Gamma Antibody by Using a Nanometer Biolinker.

For rapid screening and quantification of an antisera antibody, a nanometer bithiophene-based conductive biolinker can enhanced signal performance and can be used to verify the interaction of an anti-IFN-γ antibody with an IFN-γ protein. The experimental measurements take a generic approach which takes advantage of the functionality of thiophene-based linkers for biosensors. Effects associated with using bithiophene as a biolinker for surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy are examined in this paper. By using an atomic force microscope (AFM), it was observed that the morphology of the bithiophene modified gold sensor surface became smoother than the original gold surface. We compared the response and concentration of the anti-IFN-γ antibody on a bithiophene-coated and dextran-coated biochip as well as on different thickness-modified surfaces under SPR relevant conditions. The results indicate that a response to IFN-γ molecules immobilized on a sensor using a bithiophene biolinker improved more than 8-fold when compared to that of a sensor using a dextran biolinker. Furthermore, the regeneration ability of the sensor surface shows good repeatability as only less than a 1% decrease was found after repeating the experimental work over 6 cycles. The characteristics provided us with a good platform for rapid screening, real-time monitoring and quantitative concentration of the autoimmune antibody activities.

Visible-Light Modulation on Lattice Dielectric Responses of a Piezo-Phototronic Soft Material.

In situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction is used to investigate a three-way piezo-phototronic soft material. This new system is composed of a semi-crystalline poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) piezoelectric polymer and titanium oxide nanoparticles. Under light illumination, photon-induced piezoelectric responses are nearly two times higher at both the lattice-structure and the macroscopic level than under conditions without light illumination. A mechanistic model is proposed.

Measurement of LED chips using a large-area silicon photodiode.

We propose the output power measurement of bare-wafer/chip light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using a large-area silicon (Si) photodiode with a simple structure and high accuracy relative to the conventional partial flux measurement using an integrating sphere. To obtain the optical characteristics of the LED chips measured using the two methods, three-dimensional ray-trace simulations are used to perform the measurement deviations owing to the chip position offset or tilt angle. The ray-tracing simulation results demonstrate that the deviation of light remaining in the integrating sphere is approximately 65% for the vertical LED chip and 53% for the flip-chip LED chip if the measurement distance in partial flux method is set to be 5-40 mm. By contrast, the deviation of light hitting the photodiode is only 15% for the vertical LED chip and 23% for the flip-chip LED chip if the large-area Si photodiode is used to measure the output power with the same measurement distance. As a result, the large-area Si photodiode method practically reduces the output power measurement deviations of the bare-wafer/chip LED, so that a high-accuracy measurement can be achieved in the mass production of the bare-wafer/chip LED without the complicated integrating sphere structure.

Power enhancement of piezoelectric transformers by adding heat transfer equipment.

It is known that piezoelectric transformers have several inherent advantages compared with conventional electromagnetic transformers. However, the maximum power capacity of piezoelectric transformers is not as large as electromagnetic transformers in practice, especially in the case of high output current. The theoretical power density of piezoelectric transformers calculated by stress boundary can reach 330 W/cm(3), but no piezoelectric transformer has ever reached such a high power density in practice. The power density of piezoelectric transformers is limited to 33 W/cm(3) in practical applications. The underlying reason is that the maximum passing current of the piezoelectric material (mechanical current) is limited by the temperature rise caused by heat generation. To increase this current and the power capacity, we proposed to add a thermal pad to the piezoelectric transformer to dissipate heat. The experimental results showed that the proposed techniques can increase by 3 times the output current of the piezoelectric transformer. A theoretical-phenomenological model which explains the relationship between vibration velocity and generated heat is also established to verify the experimental results.

Generating a sub-wavelength Bessel-like light beam using a tapered hollow tube.

We present a series of sub-wavelength annular aperture (SAA) structures with annular width equal to the tip of a tapered hollow tube, which was fabricated using a heat-pulled method. The light beams emitted from the SAA-like structures created by the tapered hollow tube produced light beams characteristic of Bessel beams. We obtained a sub-micrometer focal spot with a depth-of-focus larger than 7 µm and identified the proper structure parameters needed to generate Bessel-like light beams. Our new design has potential application to areas such as optical lithography, optical trapping, and the fabrication of high aspect ratio structures.

Laser ablation of silicon using a Bessel-like beam generated by a subwavelength annular aperture structure.

Using a femtosecond laser incident to an oxide-metal-oxide film engraved with a subwavelength annular aperture (SAA) structure, we generated a Bessel-like beam to ablate silicon. Experimental results show that the silicon can be ablated with a 0.05 J/cm(2) input ablation threshold at 120 fs pulse duration. We obtained a surface hole possessing a diameter less than 1 µm. Optical performance, including depth-of-focus and focal spot of the SAA structure, were simulated using finite-different time-domain calculations. We found that a far-field laser beam propagating through a SAA structure possesses a submicrometer focal spot and high focus intensity. Our method can be easily adopted for surface machining in microfabrication applications.

Integrating fault tolerance algorithm and circularly polarized ellipsometer for point-of-care applications.

A circularly polarized ellipsometer was developed to enable real-time measurements of the optical properties of materials. Using a four photo-detector quadrature configuration, a phase modulated ellipsometer was substantially miniaturized which has the ability to achieve a high precision detection limit. With a proven angular resolution of 0.0001 deg achieved by controlling the relative positions of a triangular prism, a paraboloidal and a spherical mirror pair, this new ellipsometer possesses a higher resolution than traditional complex mechanically controlled configurations. Moreover, the addition of an algorithm, FTA (fault tolerance algorithm) was adopted to compensate for the imperfections of the opto-mechanical system which can decrease system measurement reliability. This newly developed system requires only one millisecond or less to complete the measurement task without having to adopt any other modulation approach. The resolution achieved can be as high as 4x10(-7) RIU (refractive index unit) which is highly competitive when compared with other commercially available instruments. Our experimental results agreed well with the simulation data which confirms that our quadrature-based circularly polarized ellipsometer with FTA is an effective tool for precise detection of the optical properties of thin films. It also has the potential to be used to monitor the refractive index change of molecules in liquids.

Optically defined modal sensors incorporating spiropyran-doped liquid crystals with piezoelectric sensors.

We integrated a piezoelectric sensing layer lamina containing liquid crystals (LC) and spiropyran (SP) in a LC/SP mixture to create an optically reconfigurable modal sensor for a cantilever beam. The impedance of this LC/SP lamina was decreased by UV irradiation which constituted the underlying mechanism to modulate the voltage externally applied to the piezoelectric actuating layer. Illuminating a specific pattern onto the LC/SP lamina provided us with a way to spatially modulate the piezoelectric vibration signal. We showed that if an UV illuminated pattern matches the strain distribution of a specific mode, a piezoelectric modal sensor can be created. Since UV illumination can be changed in situ in real-time, our results confirm for the first time since the inception of smart sensors, that an optically tailored modal sensor can be created. Some potential applications of this type of sensor include energy harvesting devices, bio-chips, vibration sensing and actuating devices.

Development of a label-free impedance biosensor for detection of antibody-antigen interactions based on a novel conductive linker.

We developed a label-free impedance biosensor based on an innovative conductive linker for detecting antibody-antigen interactions. As the often used conventional long chain thiol is a poor conductor, it is not a suitable material for use in a faradaic biosensor. In this study, we adopted a thiophene-based conductive bio-linker to form a self-assembled monolayer and to immobilize the bio-molecules. We used cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy to verify the enhanced conductivity properties. Results showed that the electron transfer resistance of this new conductive linker was 3 orders of a magnitude lower than for a case using a conventional long chain thiol linker. With the decreased impedance (i.e. increased faradaic current), we can obtain a higher signal/noise ratio such that the detection limit is improved. Using fluorescence microscopy, we verified that our new conductive linker has a protein immobilization capability similar to a conventional long chain thiol linker. Also, using S100 proteins, we verified the protein interaction detection capability of our system. Our obtained results showed a linear dynamic range from 10 ng/ml to 10 µg/ml and a detection limit of 10 ng/ml. With our new conductive linker, an electrochemical impedance biosensor shows great potential to be used for point-of-care applications.

Enhanced detection of fluorescent nanospheres using two-channel radially polarized surface plasmon microscopy.

We detected single dye-stained latex nanospheres as small as 20 nm using a two-detection channel modified surface plasmon microscope. We found that a radially polarized incident beam leading to excitation of well-focused surface plasmons induces both fluorescence and elastic linear scattering from the spheres. The two complementary emitted signals were detected in parallel by the two separated channels, leading to well-colocalized images. We obtained high spatial resolutions for both channels down to 250 nm in the lateral direction and 300 nm along the longitudinal axis. We believe this multimodal microscope can be useful to track nano objects and to compensate for intermittent fluorescence, thanks to a permanently activated parallel scattering detection channel.

Novel approach to fuzzy-wavelet ECG signal analysis for a mobile device.

This paper describes a signal processing technique for ECG signal analysis based upon the combination of wavelet analysis and fuzzy c-means clustering. The signal analysis technique is implemented into a biomedical signal diagnostic unit that is the carry on device for the Wireless Nano-Bios Diagnostic System (WNBDS) developed at National Taiwan University. The WNBDS integrates mobile devices and remote data base servers to conduct online monitoring and remote healthcare applications. The signal analysis and diagnostic algorithms in this paper are implemented in an embedded mobile device to conduct mobile biomedical signal diagnostics. At this stage, the Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) is analyzed for patient health monitoring. The ECG signal processing is based on the wavelet analysis, and the diagnosis is based on fuzzy clustering. The embedded system is realized with the Windows CE operating system.

Continuous numerical aperture properties of a cylindrically polarized light illuminated sub-wavelength annular aperture.

We investigated the process of focusing a radially polarized (RP) light beam through a sub-wavelength annular aperture (SAA). We found that the result was a non-diffraction doughnut-shaped light beam which propagates in free space. After analyzing the electric field component of the focus generated by the SAA structure, we identified the relationship between the focal field generated by the SAA. We then compared it to a case with a traditional objective lens. From our findings, we propose that a SAA structure can be viewed as a continuous numerical aperture optical element.

Research on three dimensional machining effects using atomic force microscope.

This research studies the use of scanning probe microscope as the tool to manufacture three dimensional nanoscale objects. We modified a commercial atomic force microscope (AFM) and replaced the original probe control system with a personal computer (PC) based controller. The modified system used the scanning probe in the AFM for the cutting tool and used the PC controller to control work piece. With the new controller, one could implement multiaxes motion control to perform trajectory planning and to test various cutting strategies. The experiments discovered that the debris can coalesce with the sample material and cause tremendous problem in the nanomachining process. This research thus proposed to make use of this material and developed a piling algorithm to not only cut but also pile up the debris in a favorable way for steric shaping. The experimental results showed that the proposed cutting and shaping algorithm can produce nano-objects as high as a few hundred nanometers. The probe tip typically wears down to around 500 microm diameter after the machining process, putting a limit on the machining resolution. The vertical resolution can achieve less than 10 nm without controlled environment.

Ellipsometric surface plasmon resonance.

We develop a new multifunctional optical biochip system that integrates an ellipsometer with a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) feature. This newly developed biochip biosensor, which we call ESPR for an ellipsometric SPR, provides us with a system to retrieve detailed information such as the optical properties of immobilized biomolecular monolayers, surface concentration variations of biomedical reactions, and kinetic affinity between biomolecules required for further biotech analysis. Our ESPR can also serve as both a research and development tool and a manufacturing tool for various biomedical applications.

Nanopatterning on silicon wafers using AFM-based lithography--for solar cells.

In this report, the nanopatterning method based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) with electrical bias to form the oxide patterns on silicon wafer is described. Under constant bias, 30 V, the linear pattern size is proportional to the rising humidity in the working environment. According to our experimental results, the sizes of the most circular nanopatterns are in the range from 50 nm to 70 nm depending on the applied bias and interaction time. In the results of evaluating the generation of oxidative production, the diameters and the number of oxide two dimensional nanopattern array, defaulted to 25 dots in 1 microm2, appeared in the AFM images have increasing tendency with the larger bias and the longer dwell time. Moreover, the imaging features of nanopatterns caused by bias 30 V have better performance than those by 10 V, and the dwell time only takes 0.015 s per dot.

Electrical properties of single and multiple poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanowires for sensing nitric oxide gas.

The electrical properties of conducting polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), nanowires were studied to develop nitric oxide (NO) gas sensors with low working temperatures. A nanowire with a diameter of 300 nm was fabricated using dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) across a 55 microm gap between a pair of electrodes. The electrical properties of single or multiple PEDOT nanowires were examined by plotting the current-voltage (I-V) curves in the range -3 V to +3 V at temperatures between 298 K and 393 K. The conductance of parallel wires was normalized with respect to the dimensions of the fabricated nanowires. The single nanowire exhibited nonlinear conductance associated with hysteresis but multiple wires did not. The currents increased with the temperature and the I-V characteristics were consistent with the power law G(T)alphaT(alpha) with alpha approximately 5.14 and 5.43. The responses to NO were highly linear and reproducible, indicating that sensing using PEDOT nanowires was reliable with a minimal concentration of NO of 10 ppm.

Propagation characteristics of silver and tungsten subwavelength annular aperture generated sub-micron non-diffraction beams.

We examined the optical properties such as propagation modes, focal length, side lobes, etc. of metallic subwavelength annular apertures (SAA) and used finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation to compare our experimental findings. Using two different metals, silver and tungsten, we examined the different optical transmission properties of the two metallic SAA structures. The far-field propagation of the silver SAA structure was found to be a type of quasi-Bessel beam when compared with a quasi-Bessel beam generated by a perfect axicon. The propagation characteristics of these two beams were found to match qualitatively. The far-field transmitted light generated by the silver SAA structure was found to possess a 390 nm sub-micron focal spot with a 24 microm depth of focus, which was much smaller than the focal spot generated by a perfect axicon. We also found that a silver SAA structure can generate a sub-micron quasi- Bessel beam that has a much lower far-field side-lobe when compared to that of non-diffraction beams generated by a tungsten SAA structure.