In dip-pen nanolithography ~DPN!, nanoscale chemical patterns are created by directly transferring chemical molecules from the tip of an atomic force microscope probe to a surface. We report the development of a thermally actuated probe array for DPN applications. The array consists of ten thermal bimorph actuated probes, each 300 mm long, with a lateral spacing of 100 mm. The probes are actuat...

The operating characteristics of a novel phase-shifting interferometer are presented. Interference arises by reflecting the light from a sample back into the cavity of a cw He-Ne laser. Changes in phase and fringe visibility are calculated from an overdetermined set of phase-shifted intensity measurements with the phase shifts being introduced with an electro-optic modulator. The interferometer...

Three circular piezoelectric actuators: Bimorph, Thunder, and Radial Field Diaphragm (RFD) function as oscillating diaphragms within a cavity to produce a zero net mass flux air jet. To characterize each diaphragm, displacement response and vibrational characteristics with varying mechanical and electrical boundary conditions were investigated using a saw tooth waveform at 5 Hz. Clamping pressu...

Due to developments in additive manufacturing, the production of piezoelectric materials with complex geometries is becoming viable and enabling the manufacturing of thicker harvesters. Therefore, in this study a piezoelectric harvesting device is modelled as a bimorph cantilever beam with a series connection and an intermediate metallic substrate using the plain strain hypothesis. On the other...

A peristaltic micropump was fabricated and characterized. The micropump was fabricated using soft lithography, and actuated using piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers. The micropump channel was formed by bonding two layers of PDMS, mixed at 5:1 and 30:1 ratios. The channel was fabricated in the 5:1 layer using replica molding (REM), where a very simple and inexpensive template was made by straddli...