A simple method for increasing the thermal efficiency of shape bimorph electrothermal micro-actuators is proposed, based on a reduction of gas conduction cooling beneath the hot arms by a deep, localized undercut. A single-sided, single-mask SCREAM-type process for fabricating differentially cooled actuators in a bonded silicon-on-insulator material is demonstrated. The process uses deep reacti...

Measuring buried, undercut microstructures is a challenging task in metrology. These structures are usually characterized by measuring their cross sections after physically cutting the samples. This method is destructive and the obtained information is incomplete. The distortion due to cutting also affects the measurement accuracy. In this paper, we first apply the laser fluorescent confocal mi...

Cats trained to avoid a foot shock (US) when electrical stimulation (CS) was applied to homotopic areas on either the right or left marginal gyrus were subjected to various degrees of surgical isolation of the stimulated areas. For ten cats a U-shaped incision on one hemisphere isolated the stimulated area from most of the intracortical connections, and the contralateral area was undercut to el...

Movable pin joints, gears, springs, cranks, and slider structures with dimensions measured in micrometers have been fabricated using silicon microfabrication technology. These micromechanical structures, which have important transducer applications, are batch-fabricated in an IC-compatible process. The movable mechanical elements are built on layers that are later removed so that they are freed...

We consider the problem of whether a given geometry can be molded in a two-part, rigid, reusable mold with opposite removal directions. We describe an efficient algorithm for solving the opposite direction moldability problem for a 2D “polygon” bounded by edges that may be either straight or curved. We introduce a structure, the normal graph of the polygon, that represents the range of normals ...

A longstanding mine backfill design challenge is determining the strength required if (partially) cured subsequently undercut. Mitchell (1991) called undercut a sill mat and proposed an analytical solution that still often used, at least for preliminary design, has motivated subsequent empirical methods. However, fully employing requires knowledge of material’s Unconfined Compressive Strength (...