The Role of Micellar Nanowires in Diagnosing Tropical Diseases

The tropical mosquito-transferred virus diseases Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya are causing hundreds of millions infections worldwide every year. Their occurrences are often linked, also due to their common transfer vector – the mosquito – thus they are of interest as a group together. Areas of prevalence include vast rural areas of low to middle...

Nonlinear dynamic atomic force microscopy

Most physical phenomena be it mechanical, chemical or biological are inherently nonlinear in nature. In fact, it is the linear phenomenon that is the exception rather than the rule. By harnessing these nonlinearities one can obtain far greater information about the underlying physics and develop more sensitive and efficient devices. This is...

Measuring adhesion and friction in mems

The strange and unpredictable behavior of meso-scale adhesion and friction forces is a practical problem for the development of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) with contacting surfaces. To overcome the associated limitations when designingMEMS devices, the first obstacle to remove is the fact that it is hard to measure displacements and...

Silicon dioxide photonic mems: Chip-to-chip alignment with positionable waveguides

THIS thesis describes the development of a positionable waveguide array realized in a silicon nitride / silicon dioxide (Si3N4 core / SiO2 cladding) photonic platform. The positionable waveguide array is the heart of a novel alignment approach for high precision multi-channel chip-to-chip interconnects. This alignment approach enables submicron...

Experimental Investigation of Adhesion and Friction Phenomena of Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD) and Aluminum Oxide in MEMS

This thesis aims to provide the latest progresses on the experimental investigation of friction and adhesion phenomena, occurring at the nanoscale in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). I have studied and characterized the interaction between MEMS sidewalls in contact and sliding one onto another. Ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) and...

Magnetic Self-Assembly with Unique Rotational Alignment

The majority of flexible electronics applications require integration of thin chips on low-cost polymer substrates, with a high volume manufacturing fashion. However, handling thin parts (below< 100?m) with contact-based micro-assembly techniques is challenging due to the strong adhesion forces at micro-scale. This situation slows down the...

Development of Nanotools for Applications in (sub-)Femtofluidics and Graphene Technologies

Properties of matter at the nano-scale may be very different from the ones observed at the macro-scale. The continuous variation of characteristics with diminishing size results in relevant changes in behavior. Similarly, these changes are caused by the rise of completely new phenomena (i.e. quantum confinement). Nanoscience can offer an...

Sub-micrometer accurate passive alignment of photonic chips - Submicrometer nauwkeurige passieve uitlijning van fotonische chips

Dry self-alignment for discrete components: Exploiting combinations of electrostatic fields and mechanical features

The assembly of microsystem chips in industrial practices is commonly done by means of a single pick-and-place operation. Despite its high process reliability, this operation is a serial process that cannot compete with the efficiency of the inherent batch-processing capability of the microsystem fabrication. Besides, the speed of a pick-and...

Developing and Analysing sub-10 µm Fluidic Systems with Integrated Electrodes for Pumping and Sensing in Nanotechnology Applications

In this thesis, sub-10 µm fluidic systems with integrated electrodes for pumping and sensing in nanotechnology applications were developed and analyzed. This work contributes to the development of the scanning ion pipette (SIP), a tool to investigate surface changes on the nanometer scale induced by locally administering chemically or bio-active...

Product-internal assembly functions: A novel micro-assembly concept applied to optical interconnects

In this project, the technical feasibility of a novel assembly concept was explored, in which microsystem-based self-assembly functionality is added to an existing product. The case considered is the accurate alignment of an optical fibre relative to a telecommunication laser source. In the most demanding cases this requires alignment accuracies...