Optimization of Sputtered Iridium Oxide Microelectrodes for Long-term Intracortical Stimulation.

The combination of excellent stimulation properties and long-term stability of electrodes is key in the development of a clinical neural prosthesis for intracortical stimulation. Iridium oxide combines both characteristics, but its quality is highly dependent on the exact fabrication parameters. In this study, the fabrication of sputtered iridium oxide films (SIROFs) was investigated in terms of oxygen flow, sputtering power and sputtering time.

Cleanroom-compatible polymeric nanostructured microneedle patch for advanced wearable applications.

Microneedles are revolutionizing healthcare by enabling minimally invasive drug delivery and real-time biosensing. This study presents an innovative polymer-based wearable system that integrates SU-8 microneedle arrays with a flexible, stretchable substrate, ensuring close skin conformity. Using a single-step backside lithography technique, we fabricated 3D microneedles, followed by a simplified etching process to produce nanostructured surfaces that enhance sensing functionality.

Harnessing intrinsic biophysical cellular properties for identification of algae and cyanobacteria impedance spectroscopy.

Harmful and nuisance-causing algal blooms, driven by global climatic shifts and eutrophication, present escalating risks to water security, public health, and ecosystems. Effective management of these blooms requires rapid and precise identification of cells to implement targeted intervention. Yet, existing methods are time-intensive, requiring specialized personnel and equipment.

Extracting mechanical quality factor and eliminating feedthrough using harmonics of thermal-piezoresistive micromechanical resonators.

Thermal-actuation and piezoresistive-detection effects have been employed to pump the effective quality factor of MEMS resonators, targeting simple self-oscillation and better sensing performance in the air. However, the ratio of the pumped effective quality factor to the inherent mechanical quality factor, crucial for characterizing the amplification, is hard to obtain. The main difficulty stems from hidden Lorentz peaks caused by feedthrough effects and the pump effect once the current is applied.

Progression of photoresin-based microneedles: From established drug delivery to emerging biosensing technologies.

Microneedles have emerged as a highly promising technology for advancing chemical biosensing and drug delivery applications, offering a minimally invasive, efficient, and versatile approach to healthcare innovation. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of photoresin-based microneedles, with a particular focus on SU-8 photoresin due to its favorable mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and ease of fabrication. Advanced techniques for surface modification are discussed to enhance the functionality of microneedles, enabling their application in precise biochemical diagnostics and effective drug therapy.

Flexible micromachined ultrasound transducers (MUTs) for biomedical applications.

The use of bulk piezoelectric transducer arrays in medical imaging is a well-established technology that operates based on thickness mode piezoelectric vibration. Meanwhile, advancements in fabrication techniques have led to the emergence of micromachined alternatives, namely, piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducer (PMUT) and capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer (CMUT). These devices operate in flexural mode using piezoelectric thin films and electrostatic forces, respectively.

Study on the piezoresistivity of Cr-doped VO thin film for MEMS sensor applications.

Cr-doped VO thin film shows a huge resistivity change with controlled epitaxial strain at room temperature as a result of a gradual Mott metal-insulator phase transition with strain. This novel piezoresistive transduction principle makes Cr-doped VO thin film an appealing piezoresistive material. To investigate the piezoresistivity of Cr-doped VO thin film for implementation in MEMS sensor applications, the resistance change of differently orientated Cr-doped VO thin film piezoresistors with external strain change was measured.

Flexible PZT-Based Row-Column Addressed 2-D PMUT Array.

This article reports a row-column (RC) addressed flexible piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducer (PMUT) array with a top-down fabrication process. The fabrication uses a temporary carrier wafer from which the array device is released by deep reactive ion etching (DRIE). About 0.

Soft Bioelectronics for Heart Monitoring.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a predominant global health concern, accounting for over 17.9 million deaths in 2019, representing approximately 32% of all global fatalities. In North America and Europe, over a million adults undergo cardiac surgeries annually.

Deep-Learning-Based Blood Glucose Detection Device Using Acetone Exhaled Breath Sensing Features of α-FeO-MWCNT Nanocomposites.

Owing to the correlation between acetone in human's exhaled breath (EB) and blood glucose, the development of EB acetone gas-sensing devices is important for early diagnosis of diabetes diseases. In this article, a noninvasive blood glucose detection device through acetone sensing in EB, based on an α-FeO-multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposite, was successfully developed. Different amounts of α-FeO were added to the MWCNTs by a simple solution method.

Near-zero stiffness accelerometer with buckling of tunable electrothermal microbeams.

Pre-shaped microbeams, curved or inclined, are widely used in MEMS for their interesting stiffness properties. These mechanisms allow a wide range of positive and negative stiffness tuning in their direction of motion. A mechanism of pre-shaped beams with opposite curvature, connected in a parallel configuration, can be electrothermally tuned to reach a near-zero or negative stiffness behavior at the as-fabricated position.

Opportunities in optical and electrical single-cell technologies to study microbial ecosystems.

New techniques are revolutionizing single-cell research, allowing us to study microbes at unprecedented scales and in unparalleled depth. This review highlights the state-of-the-art technologies in single-cell analysis in microbial ecology applications, with particular attention to both optical tools, i.e.

Full-electric microfluidic platform to capture, analyze and selectively release single cells.

Current single-cell technologies require large and expensive equipment, limiting their use to specialized labs. In this paper, we present for the first time a microfluidic device which demonstrates a combined method for full-electric cell capturing, analyzing, and selectively releasing with single-cell resolution. All functionalities are experimentally demonstrated on .

Polyimide-On-Silicon 2D Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasound Transducer (PMUT) Array.

This paper presents a fully addressable 8 × 8 two-dimensional (2D) rigid piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) array. The PMUTs were fabricated on a standard silicon wafer, resulting in a low-cost solution for ultrasound imaging. A polyimide layer is used as the passive layer in the PMUT membranes on top of the active piezoelectric layer.

Development of complexity categories for an investigational drug services complexity scoring tool to assess pharmacy effort in clinical trial initiation and maintenance.

Purpose: Research pharmacy effort required to safely and compliantly manage investigational products (IP) varies between studies. No validated tool exists in the United States to evaluate these differences in effort. The Vizient Pharmacy Research Committee Investigational Drug Services (IDS) Subcommittee previously developed a systematic complexity scoring tool (CST) through expert consensus to assign a complexity score for pharmacy effort.

Thin flexible arrays for long-term multi-electrode recordings in macaque primary visual cortex.

Basic, translational and clinical neuroscience are increasingly focusing on large-scale invasive recordings of neuronal activity. However, in large animals such as nonhuman primates and humans-in which the larger brain size with sulci and gyri imposes additional challenges compared to rodents, there is a huge unmet need to record from hundreds of neurons simultaneously anywhere in the brain for long periods of time. Here, we tested the electrical and mechanical properties of thin, flexible multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) inserted into the primary visual cortex of two macaque monkeys, and assessed their magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatibility and their capacity to record extracellular activity over a period of 1 year.

A Review on Coupled Bulk Acoustic Wave MEMS Resonators.

With the introduction of the working principle of coupled resonators, the coupled bulk acoustic wave (BAW) Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) resonators have been attracting much attention. In this paper, coupled BAW MEMS resonators are discussed, including the coupling theory, the actuation and sensing theory, the transduction mechanism, and the applications. BAW MEMS resonators normally exhibit two types of vibration modes: lateral (in-plane) modes and flexural (out-of-plane) modes.

Micrographic View of Graft Union Formation Between Watermelon Scion and Squash Rootstock.

Grafting has become a common practice for watermelon [ (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai] production in many parts of the world, due to its efficacy against biotic and abiotic stressors. However, grafting success for watermelon is challenging in part due to the complex anatomy of the cucurbit vascular system.

Development and Application of Nanoparticle-Nanopolymer Composite Spheres for the Study of Environmental Processes.

Plastics have long been an environmental contaminant of concern as both large-scale plastic debris and as micro- and nano-plastics with demonstrated wide-scale ubiquity. Research in the past decade has focused on the potential toxicological risks posed by microplastics, as well as their unique fate and transport brought on by their colloidal nature. These efforts have been slowed by the lack of analytical techniques with sufficient sensitivity and selectivity to adequately detect and characterize these contaminants in environmental and biological matrices.

Python-Based Open-Source Electro-Mechanical Co-Optimization System for MEMS Inertial Sensors.

The surge in fabrication techniques for micro- and nanodevices gave room to rapid growth in these technologies and a never-ending range of possible applications emerged. These new products significantly improve human life, however, the evolution in the design, simulation and optimization process of said products did not observe a similarly rapid growth. It became thus clear that the performance of micro- and nanodevices would benefit from significant improvements in this area.

Design of a large-range rotary microgripper with freeform geometries using a genetic algorithm.

This paper describes a novel electrostatically actuated microgripper with freeform geometries designed by a genetic algorithm. This new semiautomated design methodology is capable of designing near-optimal MEMS devices that are robust to fabrication tolerances. The use of freeform geometries designed by a genetic algorithm significantly improves the performance of the microgripper.

Monitoring Lower Back Activity in Daily Life Using Small Unintrusive Sensors and Wearable Electronics in the Context of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases.

Due to a sedentary lifestyle, the amount of people suffering from musculoskeletal back diseases has increased over the last few decades. To monitor and cure these disabilities, sensors able to monitor the patient for long-term measurement during daily life and able to provide real-time feedback are required. There are only a few wearable systems that are capable to acquire muscle activity (sEMG) and posture at the same time.

Design of freeform geometries in a MEMS accelerometer with a mechanical motion preamplifier based on a genetic algorithm.

This paper describes a novel, semiautomated design methodology based on a genetic algorithm (GA) using freeform geometries for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. The proposed method can design MEMS devices comprising freeform geometries and optimize such MEMS devices to provide high sensitivity, large bandwidth, and large fabrication tolerances. The proposed method does not require much computation time or memory.

Population health management of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol via a remote, algorithmic, navigator-executed program.

Background: Implementation of guideline-directed cholesterol management remains low despite definitive evidence establishing such measures reduce cardiovascular (CV) events, especially in high atherosclerotic CV disease (ASCVD) risk patients. Modern electronic resources now exist that may help improve health care delivery. While electronic medical records (EMR) allow for population health screening, the potential for coupling EMR screening to remotely delivered algorithmic population-based management has been less studied as a way of overcoming barriers to optimal cholesterol management.

Implantation of Neuropixels probes for chronic recording of neuronal activity in freely behaving mice and rats.

How dynamic activity in neural circuits gives rise to behavior is a major area of interest in neuroscience. A key experimental approach for addressing this question involves measuring extracellular neuronal activity in awake, behaving animals. Recently developed Neuropixels probes have provided a step change in recording neural activity in large tissue volumes with high spatiotemporal resolution.