This paper reports the design, fabrication and testing of a free-standing encastre beam resonator which is entirely fabricated using screen printing onto a flexible polyimide substrate. The design of the free-standing resonator was achieved using sacrificial techniques. The resonator was designed to be excited at one end of the beam and the vibrations detected on the other end using piezoelectr...

Standard sacrificial template synthesis allows metal oxide nanotubes to be produced from ZnO nanowires. In spite of their high interest in several technological fields, the low surface area of these nanotubes is a drawback for most applications. Here we report for the first time the sacrificial template synthesis of stainless steel wire-mesh (SSWM) supported metal oxides of high technological i...

In order to manufacture short gap single Si nanowire (NW) field effect transistor (FET) by imprinting and transferring method, we introduce the method using Al2O3 sacrificial layer. The diameters of cylindrical Si NW addressed between Au electrodes by dielectrophoretic (DEP) alignment method are controlled to 106, 128, and 148 nm. After imprinting and transfer process, cylindrical Si NW is embe...

This article presents a set of low-temperature deposition and etching processes for the integration of electrochemically deposited Ni-Fe alloys in complex magnetic microelectromechanical systems, as Ni-Fe is known to suffer from detrimental stress development when subjected to excessive thermal loads. A selective etch process is reported which enables the copper seed layer used for electrodepos...

Two soft lithography based fabrication techniques were employed for fabricating mechanically independent, freely suspended polymer microstructure from poly(n-propyl methacrylate) (PPMA) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Both methods involve a micromolding process followed by thermal bonding to the substrate. The first method, sacrificial layer micromolding, uses a water-soluble sacrificial ...

We demonstrate an array of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (SS-DSSCs) for a high-voltage power source based on micropatterned titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TNPs) as photoanodes connected in series. The underlying concept of patterning the TNP of a few micrometers thick lies on the combination of the lift-off process of transfer-printed patterns of a sacrificial layer and the soft-cure ...

A study of AlxGa1−xAs as a sacrificial film for surface micromachining is presented. AlxGa1−xAs etch rate and selectivity are measured over a range of aluminum mole fractions and HF etchant concentrations during the release of structural features up to 500 μm in width. The etch process is found to be diffusion limited, with an inverse power law relationship between etch depth and etch rate. Exc...

Tissues in the body are hierarchically structured composite materials with tissue-specific chemical and topographical properties. Here we report the preparation of tissue scaffolds with macroscopic pores generated via the dissolution of a sacrificial supramolecular polymer-based crystal template (urea) from a biodegradable polymer-based scaffold (polycaprolactone, PCL). Furthermore, we report a...

A miniaturized polymer electrospray-type interface is used to study metal-ion chelation with model peptides. Taking advantage of the intrinsic electrochemical behavior of electrospray, a sacrificial electrode is used to generate at the same time electrospray and transition-metal ions coming from the anodic dissolution of the electrode. The microspray interface provides enhanced mass transport d...

In this paper, we describe a new approach for fabrication of micromechanical resonators for radio-frequency communication applications. The proposed process provides ultra-narrow lateral gaps using lithographically-defined sacrificial Ge blades. By using Germanium as a sacrificial material, we eliminate the need for HF etching to release mechanical structures and thereby simplify the integratio...