A method is provided for subtractively processing a layer of etchable material formed over an electrically conductive surface region of a workpiece. The workpiece is immersed in a liquid solution, generally but not exclusively a conductive solution, that comprises an etchant for the etchable material, so that etching of the etchable material is initiated. An electric circuit is connected to include a control electrode, a reference electrode, and the electrically conductive surface region of the workpiece. The electric circuit is used to monitor the development process dynamically at each of a plurality of intervals during the etching. The etching is terminated when the electrochemical signal satisfies a criterion indicating that the etching is complete.

A method for preparing a flexible electrode is provided. The method comprises sequentially forming a flexible base layer and an intermediate conductive layer on a carrier plate; treating an elastomeric template having an electrode pattern with an acid, followed by transferring and printing the electrode pattern onto the intermediate conductive layer to form an electrode inducing layer; forming a titanium dioxide-polydopamine composite layer in a gap of the electrode inducing layer; forming a platinum electrode layer on the titanium dioxide-polydopamine composite layer; removing the carrier plate. The invention solves the problems of slow formation of a polydopamine film and slow formation of a platinum electrode layer. A flexible electrode is further provided.

A method of producing a semiconductor device includes providing a carrier structure having a semiconductor substrate; applying or introducing a precursor substance onto or into the carrier structure, treating the precursor substance for producing a porous matrix structure; introducing a functionalization substance into the porous matrix structure.

Nanofluidic passages such as nanochannels and nanopores are closed or opened in a controlled manner through the use of a feedback system. An oxide layer is grown or removed within a passage in the presence of an electrolyte until the passage reaches selected dimensions or is closed. The change in dimensions of the nanofluidic passage is measured during fabrication. The ionic current level through the passage can be used to determine passage dimensions. Fluid flow through an array of fluidic elements can be controlled by selective oxidation of fluidic passages between elements.

Disclosed herein is a novel a tunable Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS) Etalon system including: a functional layer patterned to define a suspension structure for suspending a first mirror being an aperture mirror of the Etalon, an aperture mirror coupled to the suspension structure, and a back layer including a second mirror, being a back mirror of the Etalon. The functional layer may be located above the back layer and the back layer may include spacer structures protruding therefrom towards the aperture mirror to define a minimal gap between the aperture mirror and the back mirror and prevent collision between them. The aspect ratio between the width of the etalon/mirrors may be high (e.g. at least 500), and the minimal gap/distance between the mirrors may be small in the order of tens of nanometers (nm). Accordingly, in some implementations the parallelism between the aperture mirror and the back mirror is adjustable to avoid chromatic artifacts associated with spatial variations in the spectral transmission profile across the etalon.

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.

A method of producing a semiconductor device includes providing a carrier structure having a semiconductor substrate; applying or introducing a precursor substance onto or into the carrier structure, treating the precursor substance for producing a porous matrix structure; introducing a functionalization substance into the porous matrix structure.

A microphone includes a substrate, an opening in the substrate, and a support structure in the opening. The support structure includes a first bracket formed in a closed-loop pattern and a second bracket connecting the first bracket to a periphery of the opening. The support structure in the opening increases the mechanical reliability of the microphone.

A method of producing a semiconductor device includes providing a carrier structure having a semiconductor substrate; applying or introducing a precursor substance onto or into the carrier structure, treating the precursor substance for producing a porous matrix structure; introducing a functionalization substance into the porous matrix structure.

An encapsulated MEMS device and a method for manufacturing the MEMS device are provided. The method comprises providing a cavity structure having an inner volume comprising a plurality of MEMS elements, which are relatively displaceable with respect to each other, and having an opening structure to the inner volume, depositing a Self-Assembled Monolayer (SAM) through the opening structure onto exposed surfaces within the inner volume of the cavity structure, and closing the cavity structure by applying a layer structure on the opening structure for providing a hermetically closed cavity.