A micromechanical resonator is disclosed. The resonator includes a resonant micromechanical element. A film of annealable material deposited on a facial surface of the element. In one instance, the resonance of the element can be adjusting by using a feedback loop to control annealing of the deposited film.

A semiconductor process including the following steps is provided. A wafer is provided. The wafer has a front side and a back side. The wafer has a semiconductor device on the front side. A protection layer is formed on the front side of the wafer. The protection layer covers the semiconductor device. A material of the protection layer includes a photoresist material. A surface hardening treatment process is performed on the protection layer. A first patterning process is performed on the back side of the wafer. The semiconductor process can effectively protect the front side of the wafer during a backside process.

Methods and apparatus for subtractively fabricating three-dimensional structures relative to a surface of a substrate and for additively depositing metal and dopant atoms onto the surface and for diffusing them into the bulk. A chemical solution is applied to the surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a spatial pattern of electron-hole pairs is generated by projecting a spatial pattern of illumination characterized by a specified intensity, wavelength and duration at each pixel of a plurality of pixels on the surface. An electrical potential is applied across the interface of the semiconductor and the solution with a specified temporal profile relative to the temporal profile of the spatial pattern of illumination. Such methods are applied to the fabrication of a photodetector integral with a parabolic reflector, cell size sorting chips, a three-dimensional photonic bandgap chip, a photonic integrated circuit, and an integrated photonic microfluidic circuit.

A method for manufacturing a system in a wafer for measuring an absolute and a relative pressure includes etching a shallow and a deep cavity in the wafer. A top wafer is applied and the top wafer is thinned for forming a first respectively second membrane over the shallow respectively deep cavity, and for forming in the top wafer first respectively second bondpads at the first respectively second membrane resulting in a first respectively second sensor. Back grinding the wafer results in an opened deep cavity and a still closed shallow cavity. The first bondpads of the first sensor measure an absolute pressure and the second bondpads of the second sensor measure a relative pressure. The etching in the first step defines the edges of the first membrane and of the second membrane in respectively the sensors formed from the shallow and the deep cavity.

Methods and apparatus for subtractively fabricating three-dimensional structures relative to a surface of a substrate and for additively depositing metal and dopant atoms onto the surface and for diffusing them into the bulk. A chemical solution is applied to the surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a spatial pattern of electron-hole pairs is generated by projecting a spatial pattern of illumination characterized by a specified intensity, wavelength and duration at each pixel of a plurality of pixels on the surface. Charge carriers are driven away from the surface of the semiconductor on a timescale short compared to the carrier recombination lifetime. Such methods are applied to creating a spatially varying doping profile in the semiconductor substrate, a photonic integrated circuit and an integrated photonic microfluidic circuit.

The present invention discloses polymer surfaces with T-shaped microstructure and their fabrication method and applications. The polymer surfaces with the T-shaped microstructure are characterized in that T-shaped microposts arrange orderly on them, and nanobulges arrange orderly on the top surfaces of the micronails of the T-shaped microposts. A flexible insert is designed and manufactured according to the geometry of the T-shaped microposts, and nanogrooves are manufactured on the cavity surface of an injection mold according to the geometry of the nanobulges on the top surfaces of the micronails. The flexible insert is mounted on the injection mold cavity. An injection molding machine is used to inject the molten polymer into the injection mold cavity. Then the polymer surfaces with the T-shaped microposts, on the top surfaces of the micronails of which the nanobulges arrange orderly, are molded. The polymer surfaces with the T-shaped microstructure exhibit robust Cassie-Baxter state and moderate surface adhesion to water droplets, and can be used for quantitative collection, lossless transportation or micromixing of microdroplets.

In described examples, a MEMS device is enclosed within a sealed package including nonmetal oxide gasses at levels greater than 1% by volume. In at least one example, the MEMS device is protected against premature failure from various causes, including charging, particle growth and stiction by moieties of the nonmetal oxide gasses reacting with various exposed surfaces within the package of the MEMS device and/or the adsorbed water layers on said surfaces.

A method for manufacturing a system in a wafer for measuring an absolute and a relative pressure includes etching a shallow and a deep cavity in the wafer. A top wafer is applied and the top wafer is thinned for forming a first respectively second membrane over the shallow respectively deep cavity, and for forming in the top wafer first respectively second bondpads at the first respectively second membrane resulting in a first respectively second sensor. Back grinding the wafer results in an opened deep cavity and a still closed shallow cavity. The first bondpads of the first sensor measure an absolute pressure and the second bondpads of the second sensor measure a relative pressure. The etching in the first step defines the edges of the first membrane and of the second membrane in respectively the sensors formed from the shallow and the deep cavity.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a super-hydrophobic surface, and to a stack having a super-hydrophobic surface prepared by the above method. The super-hydrophobic surface may be realized only by plasma etching and deposition. The super-hydrophobic surface according to the present invention has a very low work of adhesion less than or equal to 3 mJ/m.sup.2. This super-hydrophobic surface may be applied to various fields including self-cleaning surface, anti-fogging surface, automobile glass surface, and drug delivery device surface.

In described examples, a MEMS device is enclosed within a sealed package including nonmetal oxide gasses at levels greater than 1% by volume. In at least one example, the MEMS device is protected against premature failure from various causes, including charging, particle growth and stiction by moieties of the nonmetal oxide gasses reacting with various exposed surfaces within the package of the MEMS device and/or the adsorbed water layers on said surfaces.