A set of microstructures for in situ stress measurement is presented, based on a lancet principle having dedicated designs for the amplification of dimensional variation induced by internal stress of the materials. The presented technique has an advantage over the traditional rotating structures and wafer curvature measurements in terms of the simplified readout mechanism. The test structures a...

A set of test structures for in situ stress measurement is presented. The test structures were realized by means of surface micromachining, adopting photoresist as sacrificial layer and electroplated gold as structural layer. Initially array of buckling type test structures cantilevers, fixedfixed beams, guckel rings and diamond were used to find out critical buckling beam. Later on rotational ...

A multi-layer nanogap array composed of three linearly aligned gold nanogaps is fabricated for a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate. The overall process for the proposed structure is simple and reliable with the use of a photolithography-free fabrication process, which includes only deposition and etching. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is employed to form a uniform and highl...

A new Room Temperature (RT) 0-level vacuum package is demonstrated in this work, using amorphous silicon (aSi) as sacrificial layer and SiO2 as structural layer. The process is compatible with most of MEMS resonators and Resonant Suspended-Gate MOSFET [1] fabrication processes. This paper presents a study on the influence of releasing hole dimensions on the releasing time and hole clogging. It ...

The preparation of a high-strength and highly transparent nacre-like nanocomposite via layer-by-layer assembly technique from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and Na+-montmorillonite clay nanosheets is reported in this article. We show that a high density of weak bonding interactions between the polymer and the clay particles: hydrogen, dipole-induced dipole, and van der Waals undergoing break-reform ...

Members of the Tolloid family of metalloproteinases liberate BMPs from inhibitory complexes to regulate BMP gradient formation during embryonic dorsal-ventral axis patterning. Here, we determine mechanistically how Tolloid activity is regulated by its non-catalytic CUB domains in the Drosophila embryo. We show that Tolloid, via its N-terminal CUB domains, interacts with Collagen IV, which enhan...

Concentration gradients of morphogens are known to be instrumental in cell signaling and tissue patterning. Of interest here is how the presence of a competitor of BMP ligands affects cell signaling. The effects of Sog on the binding of Dpp with cell receptors are analyzed for dorsal-ventral morphogen gradient formation in vertebrate and Drosophila embryos. This prototype system includes diffus...

Reconfiguration of the respiratory network at the onset of locust flight. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 3137-3147, 1998. The respiratory interneurons 377, 378, 379 and 576 were identified within the suboesophageal ganglion (SOG) of the locust. Intracellular stimulation of these neurons excited the auxillary muscle 59 (M59), a muscle that is involved in the control of thoracic pumping in the locust. Like...