Metal and Polymeric Strain Gauges for Si-based, Monolithically Fabricated Organs-on-Chips

Organ-on-chip (OOC) is becoming the alternative tool to conventional in vitro screening. Heart-on-chip devices including microstructures for mechanical and electrical stimulation have been demonstrated to be advantageous to study structural organization and maturation of heart cells. This paper presents the development of metal and polymeric...

A novel method to transfer porous PDMS membranes for high throughput Organ-on-Chip and Lab-on-Chip assembly

We present a novel method to easily and reliably transfer highly porous, large area, thin microfabricated Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) porous membranes on Lab-on-Chip (LOC) and Organ-on-Chip (OOC) devices. The use of silicon as carrier substrate and a water-soluble sacrificial layer allows a simple and reproducible transfer of the membranes to...

Effects of Conformal Nanoscale Coatings on Thermal Performance of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

The high aspect ratio and the porous nature of spatially oriented forest-like carbon nanotube (CNT) structures represent a unique opportunity to engineer a novel class of nanoscale assemblies. By combining CNTs and conformal coatings, a 3D lightweight scaffold with tailored behavior can be achieved. The effect of nanoscale coatings, aluminum...

Vacuum assisted liquified metal (VALM) TSV filling method with superconductive material

A novel, simple, low-cost method for the void-free filling of high aspect ratio (HAR) through-silicon-vias (TSVs) is presented. For the first-time pure indium, a type-I superconductor metal, is used to fill HAR vias, 300 to 500 μm in depth and 50 to 100 μm in diameter. The low electrical resistivity achieved without sintering, its...

Microfabricated tuneable and transferable porous PDMS membranes for Organs-on-Chips

We present a novel and highly reproducible process to fabricate transferable porous PDMS membranes for PDMS-based Organs-on-Chips (OOCs) using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication technologies. Porous PDMS membranes with pore sizes down to 2.0 μm in diameter and a wide porosity range (2–65%) can be fabricated. To overcome issues...

Thermal characterization of carbon nanotube foam using MEMS microhotplates and thermographic analysis

Thermal material properties play a fundamental role in the thermal management of microelectronic systems. The porous nature of carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays results in a very high surface area to volume ratio, which makes the material attractive for surface driven heat transfer mechanisms. Here, we report on the heat transfer performance of...

PEDOT:PSS: A Conductive and Flexible Polymer for Sensor Integration in Organ-on-Chip Platforms

Sensing and stimulating microstructures are necessary to develop more specialized and highly accurate Organ-on-Chip (OOC) platforms. In this paper, we present the integration of a conductive polymer, poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), on a stretchable membrane, core element of an Heart-on-Chip. The electrical...