Microfluidics is an emerging technology used to reduce the size and increase the speed of common laboratory assays (procedure for measuring biochemical activity), as well as to combine different assays into entire "lab-on-a-chip" devices.

Abstract: With rapid development of nanophotonics, nanofabrication becomes an important topic for structuring nanophotonic devices. Focused ion beam (FIB) technology is a commonly used nanofabrication technique with its unique advantadges of one-step formation, no material selectivity, and locally etching.

In the 70s photothermal techniques were developed to characterize materials’ properties. In recent years, photothermal techniques have been modified for studying live cells. In this talk, pulsed photothermal reflectance (PPR) will first be introduced that can characterize thermal properties of thin films and carbon nanotubes.

In this presentation, I will introduce the work conducted in China. The research work including four subjects:
1. Cell electrophoresis on microfluidic Chip;
2. Single cell lysated detection on microfluidic chip;
3. Cell-based drug screening on microfluidic chip; 4. Cell chemiluminescence detection on microfluidic chip.

A first-principles calculation of the emission current in a single-walled carbon nanotube electron source using the non-equilibrium Green's function and Fisher-Lee's transmission formulation to describe electronic transport through the system.

Diabetes is a most common disease worldwide. Acetone in exhaled breath is a known biomarker of Type-1 diabetes. An exhaled breath analyzer has been invented and developed by our team to diagnose diabetes as a non-invasive alternative of the currently used blood-based diagnostics.

A novel anti-biofouling vibration-based mechanism with the combined effects of electric field and shear stress was reported (on PZT plates). This anti-fouling mechanism can also be activated by a vibrating micromachined Si/SiO2 membrane. In addition, it can incorporate the polymer coating, such as poly(ethylene glycol), unto PZT plates to further enhance the anti-fouling performance.

Nanoscale resonators offer great potential as sensing devices due to their high sensitivity to added masses or external forces. The sensitivity of mechanical resonators scales favorably as their dimensions are reduced, offering a compelling path for the development of sensors with exceptional mass sensitivities.

By integrating the Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT) structure into a Vertical Cavity Laser (VCSEL) structure, we can combine the advantages of the VCSEL with the optoelectronic properties of the transistor laser. In this paper, we describe the structure of a Transistor VCSEL (TX-VCSEL) and present the numerical modeling results using Crosslight PICS3D.

Hydogels are 3 dimensional cross linked structures that are capable of swelling and deswelling with the level of moisture around them. They can be characterized to swell to different biomedical parameters such glucose concentration, temperature, pH etc.

Dr. Stoeber's research group is investigating the flow of non-newtonian fluids in microfluidic environments.
Understanding such fluids in small-scale environments allows designing robust microfluidic systems as well as new flow control methods. This talk will include a discussion of suspension flows and thermally responsive polymer solutions in microfluidic environments.

Inkjet technology has long been used to print our papers, pictures or letters. More recently, attention has expanded to patterning new materials, especially in life science applications. Tissue engineering, by combining living cells in three-dimensional scaffolds, aims to develop complex biological substitutes to restore, heal, or improve tissue function.

Stress engineering and SiGe are receiving more and more attention in semiconductor R&D. They have much enhanced carrier transport properties than traditional Si, and the capability of bandgap engineering. At the same time, they are significantly more economical for large scale production compared to III-V semiconductors.