Two-photon polymerization-based 3D-multi-electrode arrays for electrical monitoring of neuronal cells

3D-multi-electrode arrays (3D-MEAs) are needed to overcome the limitations of 2D-multi-electrode arrays (2D-MEAs) and enable the electrical characterization of 3D neuronal cultures in in vitro brain models, advancing the understanding of neurological disorders and paving the way to personalized medicine. The aim of this thesis was to overcome...

On-chip trapping of sub-micron objects with surface acoustic wave devices

Proteins play a key role in many biological processes and are thus useful indicators of health and disease states. Since the size of proteins is few hundred nanometers, it is necessary to explore new techniques to manipulate and 'read' them. This thesis aims to identify and build a platform that enables sub-micron bead manipulation, which will...

Lubrication-film height imaging for hydrostatic bearings with fluorescence: With an analytic solution to the plane-parallel, fluorescent radiative transfer equation

The performance of hydrostatic bearings is in part decided by their lubrication-film height shape. Imaging the shape can be done by dissolving fluorescent dyes in the layer. However, current imaging techniques are rooted in heuristics, and as such, their physics, design parameters, and error sources are not quantitively understood. To fully...

Three-dimensional ultrasound: Enabling volume measurements with a two-dimensional ultrasound probe

This work investigates low-cost three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound reconstruction from a two-dimensional (2D) hand-held probe with motion tracking. The best available motion tracking is an optical tracking system, which is expensive and requires external tracking hardware. Here, a low-cost manoeuvrable motion tracker, an inertial measurement unit...