We report on experimental and modeling results for photoresist etching with oxygen gas in an inductively coupled large area plasma source ~LAPS!. The source is driven by a 13.56 MHz traveling wave launched along a serpentine antenna embedded in the plasma and has a processing area as large as 40 cm350 cm. We describe a new series-parallel antenna coil configuration, and we present experimental ...

Photolithography of multi-level channel features in microfluidics is laborious and/or costly. Grayscale photolithography is mostly used with positive photoresists and conventional front side exposure, but the grayscale masks needed are generally costly and positive photoresists are not commonly used in microfluidic rapid prototyping. Here we introduce a simple and inexpensive alternative that u...

Interest in thick-photoresist applications is steadily growing. In addition to bump fabrication and wire interconnect technology (WIT), the process of patterning thick-layer photoresists by UV lithography is specially qualified for applications in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Specialized equipment and new photoresists have been developed or are under development to cope with the new c...

In the era of lab-on-chip (LOC) devices, two-photon polymerization (TPP) is gaining more and more interest due to its capability of producing micrometer-sized 3D structures. With TPP, one may integrate functional structures into microfluidic systems by polymerizing them directly inside microchannels. When the feature of sub-micrometer size is a requirement, it is necessary to use high numerical...

This paper describes a novel surface engineering approach that combines oxygen plasma treatment and electrochemical activation to create micropatterned cocultures on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates. In this approach, photoresist was patterned onto an ITO substrate modified with poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG) silane. The photoresist served as a stencil during exposure of the surface to oxygen pla...

A novel low-cost nanoring array fabrication method that combines the process of lithographically patterned nanoscale electrodeposition (LPNE) with colloidal lithography is described. Nanoring array fabrication was accomplished in three steps: (i) a thin (70 nm) sacrificial nickel or silver film was first vapor-deposited onto a plasma-etched packed colloidal monolayer; (ii) the polymer colloids ...

The OMEGA laser system uses waveplates and polarizers to alter the polarization of the laser light. Both devices are formed using two glass substrates that contain alignment layers and are separated by vacuum-deposited thin-film spacers and filled with liquid crystals (LCs). Vacuum deposition of thin-film spacers is time-consuming and requires the use of expensive equipment. In this study, spac...

Superhydrophobic surfaces in nature exhibit desirable properties including self-cleaning, bacterial resistance, and flight efficiency. However, creating such intricate multi-scale features with conventional fabrication approaches is difficult, expensive, and not scalable. By patterning photoresist on pre-stressed shrink-wrap film, which contracts by 95% in surface area when heated, such feature...