silicon and benzocyclobutene

A large-area binary blazed grating coupler for the arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) demodulation integrated microsystem on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) was designed for the first time. Through the coupler, light can be coupled into the SOI waveguide from the InP-based C-band LED for the AWG demodulation integrated microsystem to function. Both the length and width of the grating coupler are 360 μm, as large as the InP-based C-band LED light emitting area in the system. The coupler was designed and optimized based on the finite difference time domain method. When the incident angle of the light source is 0°, the coupling efficiency of the binary blazed grating is 40.92%, and the 3 dB bandwidth is 72 nm at a wavelength of 1550 nm.

Topics: Equipment Design; Light; Optical Fibers; Polycyclic Compounds; Semiconductors; Silicon; Spectrum Analysis; Time Factors

Conducting polymers are excellent materials for actuators that are operated in aqueous media. Microactuators based on polypyrrole-gold bilayers enable large movement of structures attached to these actuators and are of particular interest for the manipulation of biological objects, such as single cells. A fabrication method for creating individually addressable and controllable polypyrrole-gold microactuators was developed. With these individually controlled microactuators, a micrometer-size manipulator, or microrobotic arm, was fabricated. This microrobotic arm can pick up, lift, move, and place micrometer-size objects within an area of about 250 micrometers by 100 micrometers, making the microrobot an excellent tool for single-cell manipulation.

Topics: Benzenesulfonates; Body Fluids; Cytodiagnosis; Cytological Techniques; Electrochemistry; Glass; Gold; Humans; Medical Laboratory Science; Microelectrodes; Micromanipulation; Microspheres; Microsurgery; Miniaturization; Polycyclic Compounds; Polymers; Polyurethanes; Pyrroles; Robotics; Silicon; Water