Microfluidic devices having superhydrophilic bi-porous interfaces are provided, along with their methods of formation. The device can include a substrate defining a microchannel formed between a pair of side walls and a bottom surface and a plurality of nanowires extending from each of the side walls and the bottom surface. For example, the nanowires can be silicon nanowires (e.g., pure silicon, silicon oxide, silicon carbide, etc., or mixtures thereof).

A robust MEMS transducer includes a kinetic energy diverter disposed within its frontside cavity. The kinetic energy diverter blunts or diverts kinetic energy in a mass of air moving through the frontside cavity, before that kinetic energy reaches a diaphragm of the MEMS transducer. The kinetic energy diverter renders the MEMS transducer more robust and resistant to damage from such a moving mass of air.

Flexible, insertable, transparent microelectrode arrays that allow integration of electrophysiological recordings with any optical imaging or stimulation technology are disclosed. In some embodiments of the disclosed technology, a microelectrode array includes a flexible substrate layer including a shank member extending in a first direction and a tapered tip at an end of the shank member, and a plurality of electrode wires arranged in the first direction on the flexible substrate layer, wherein the plurality of electrode wires includes adjacent electrode wires having different lengths from each other such that an electrode wire arranged closer to a centerline of the flexible substrate layer is longer than an adjacent electrode arranged further away from the centerline of the flexible substrate.

A method to remove selected parts of a thin-film material otherwise uniformly deposited over a template is disclosed. The methods rely on a suitable potting material to encapsulate and snatch the deposited material on apexes of the template. The process may yield one and/or two devices during a single process step: (i) thin-film material(s) with micro- and/or nano-perforations defined by the shape of template apexes, and (ii) micro- and/or nano-particles shaped and positioned in the potting material by the design of the template apexes. The devices made from this method may find applications in fabrication of mechanical, chemical, electrical and optical devices.

A system and method for manufacturing a micropillar array (20). A carrier (11) is provided with a layer of metal ink (20i). A high energy light source (14) irradiates the metal ink (20i) via a mask (13) between the carrier (11) and the light source. The mask is configured to pass a cross-section illuminated image of the micropillar array onto the metal ink (20i), thereby causing a patterned sintering of the metal ink (20i) to form a first subsection layer (21) of the micropillar array (20) in the layer of metal ink (20i). A further layer of the metal ink (20i) is applied on top of the first subsection layer (21) of the micropillar array (20) and irradiated via the mask (13) to form a second subsection layer (21) of the micropillar array on top. The process is repeated to achieve high aspect ratio micropillars 20p.

The present invention disclosed a micro acoustic collector with a lateral cavity, comprising: a base metal layer; a movable film, an annular side wall; a lateral metal layer. The movable film faces towards the base metal layer to form a hollow space. The lateral metal layer is formed at a side of the movable film and around the movable film, fixed by the annular side wall and spaced apart from peripheral of the movable film by a distance, and the lateral metal layer faces towards the base metal layer to form a lateral cavity to assist an acoustic collection.

The invention disclosed herein includes electrode compositions formed from processes that sputter metal in a manner that produces pillar architectures. Embodiments of the invention can be used in analyte sensors having such electrode architectures as well as methods for making and using these sensor electrodes. A number of working embodiments of the invention are shown to be useful in amperometric glucose sensors worn by diabetic individuals. However, the metal pillar structures have wide ranging applicability and should increase surface area and decrease charge density for catalyst layers or electrodes used with sensing, power generation, recording, and stimulation, in vitro and/or in the body, or outside the body.

A method of manufacturing a plurality of neural probes from a silicon wafer in which after neural probes are formed on one side of a silicon wafer, the other side of the silicon wafter is subject to a dicing process that separates and adjusts the thickness of the neural probes.

An electrooptical device includes a first metal layer disposed spaced apart from a first surface of a substrate and including a mirror, which modulates light, and a mirror support post, which has a tubular shape and protrudes from the mirror toward the substrate. The first metal layer is formed by forming a metal layer on a surface of a sacrificial layer having an opening, patterning the metal layer, and removing the sacrificial layer. Thus, the mirror support post is formed so as to extend over the inner wall of the opening. Here, the mirror support post has a thickness of not less than 1.5 times the length of the mirror support post.

A preparation method of a bionic adhesive material with a tip-expanded microstructural array includes the following steps: machining through-holes on a metal sheet; modifying morphology of a through-hole by electroplating, using the metal sheet in step 1 as an electroplating cathode, and arranging the electroplating cathode and an electroplating anode in parallel to prepare a hyperboloid-like through-hole array assembly, fitting a lower surface of the hyperboloid-like through-hole array assembly tightly to an upper surface of a substrate assembly to prepare a through-hole assembly of a mold; and filling the mold assembly with a polymer, curing, and demolding to obtain the adhesive material with the tip-expanded microstructural array.