Microtechnique

The following paper describes a sacrificial layer method for the manufacturing of microfluidic devices in polyimide and SU-8. The technique uses heat-depolymerizable polycarbonates embedded in polyimide or SU-8 for the generation of microchannels and sealed cavities. The volatile decomposition products originating from thermolysis of the sacrificial material escape out of the embedding material by diffusion through the cover layer. The fabrication process was studied experimentally and theoretically with a focus on the decomposition of the sacrificial materials and their diffusion through the polyimide or SU-8 cover layer. It is demonstrated that the sacrificial material removal process is independent of the actual channel geometry and advances linearly with time unlike conventional sacrificial layer techniques. The fabrication method provides a versatile and fast technique for the manufacturing of microfluidic devices for applications in the field of mTAS and Lab-on-a-Chip.

The use of low-stress SU8 nanocomposites as a functional material for micro-parts and coating applications is described in this paper. It was found that the nanoparticles lower the internal stress and decrease the wear rate and frictional coefficient of the SU8 epoxy. The applicability of this technology is demonstrated on gear wheels configuration and coating multilayer capping technology on moving micro-parts.

SU-8 photoresist is commonly used in the field of microfabrication as structural material or for molding of microfluidic devices. One major limitation, however, is the difficulty to process partially freestanding SU-8 structures or monolithic closed cavities and channels on-chip. We propose here a simple method for the fabrication of suspended structures, in particular of monolithic SU-8 microchannels. The method is based on the processing of a SU-8 doublelayer. Appropriate modification of the optical properties of the upper layer allows for selective crosslinking in the layer sandwich. This process is suitable for versatile layouts comprising open and hollow SU-8 structures on the same chip.

A novel liquid scintillation detector with high spatial resolution is being developed with standard microfabrication techniques. It consists of a dense array of scintillating waveguides obtained by filling microfluidic channels with an organic liquid scintillator and optically coupled to a pixellated photodetector. Such a microfluidic device can be designed and processed to meet the requirements of a wide range of applications like medical imaging, homeland security and high-energy physics. Highspatial resolution miniaturized detectors as well as large-area detectors can easily be fabricated. The fabrication process of a prototype detector and experimental results are presented in this paper.

The increasing interests in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) has raised the requirement for photoresist materials with improved friction and wear properties for mechanically loaded 3D shaped microstructures. In this work, SU8 photoresist layers reinforced with different amounts of silica nanoparticles were produced and thermally treated. Dry sliding tests indicate that SU8 composite epoxies produced in the form of thin films exhibit similar or even better tribological properties than bulk epoxies. The SU8 nanocomposites exhibit reduced wear rates and frictional coefficient compared to the un-reinforced material. Further, nanoparticle content, heat treatment and nature of the sliding counter piece were found to affect wear and friction. The tribological behaviour was discussed in terms of mechanical properties and contact pressures.

Microstereolithography is a technology at the interface of the microengineering and rapid prototyping domains. It has evolved from the stereolithography technique, and is also based on a light-induced layer-stacking manufacturing. As the resolution of the microstereolithography technique is far better than the one of rapid prototyping technologies, this technique is of particular interest in the microengineering domain where its 3D capability allows the production of components no other microfabrication technique can create.

This paper presents the study of a novel scintillation detector based on standard microfabrication techniques. It consists of a fine pitch array of hollow waveguides filled with a liquid scintillator and optically coupled to photodetectors. The detector has been fabricated by patterning the SU-8 photoresist on silicon wafers. Experimental studies have been performed by exciting the liquid scintillator contained in the SU-8 waveguides with electrons. The scintillation light produced was read out by an external photodetector. The results obtained with this set-up demonstrate the concept of microfluidic scintillation detection and are very encouraging for future developments.

A new process for the fabrication of two superposed layers of microfluidic channels connected by vias is used to trap and release particles in a transparent chip. Parallel manipulation of beads is studied and the rules for cell trapping are defined.

We present a microfluidic dielectrophoretic-actuated system designed to trap chosen single-cell and form controlled cell aggregates. A novel method is proposed to characterize the efficiency of the dielectrophoretic trapping, considering the flow speed but also the heat generated by the traps as limiting criteria in cell-safe manipulation. Two original designs with different manufacturing processes are experimentally compared. The most efficient design is selected and the cell membrane integrity is monitored by fluorescence imaging to guarantee a safe-cell trapping. Design rules are suggested to adapt the traps to multiple-cells trapping and are experimentally validated as we formed aggregates of controlled size and composition with two different types of cells. We provide hereby a simple manufactured tool allowing the controlled manipulation of particles for the composition of multicellular assemblies.

Quality factor of Contour Mode Resonators (CMR) are mainly affected by energy losses due to acoustic waves leaving the resonator through the anchors. An engineering of the anchors in order to create a periodic variation in the acoustic impedance of the material, structures known as Phononic Crystals (PnCs), can help improve the Q factor by reflecting part of the acoustic waves. During this project, FEM models have been validated for both 1D and 2D PnCs. The behavior of the band diagram and quantification of transmission has been studied for three different PnC geometries: circle, cross and square unit cell. Parameters such as unit cell size, filling factor, material composition, thickness and number of repetitions have been varied and comparisons between transmission graph and band diagram allowed to understand better the nature of the modes. It has been found that a linear approximation can predict with a good precision the position of the band gap as a function of the unit cell si...

The understanding of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions via receptor and ligand binding relies on our ability to study the very first events of their contact. Of particular interest is the interaction between a T cell receptor and its cognate peptide-major histocompatibility complex. Indeed analyzing their binding kinetics and cellular avidity in large-scale low-cost and fast cell sorting would largely facilitate the access to cell-based cancer immunotherapies. We thus propose a microfluidic tool able to independently control two types of micro-sized objects, put them in contact for a defined time and probe their adhesion state. The device consists in hydrodynamic traps holding the first type of cells from below against the fluid flow, and a dielectrophoretic system to force the second type of object to remain in contact to the first one. First the device is validated by performing an adhesion frequency assay between fibroblasts and fibronectin coated bead. Then, a study is cond...