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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Surface Feature Engineering Through Nanosphere Lithography, Tod V. Laurvick, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., James M. Sattler, Robert A. Lake
Surface Feature Engineering Through Nanosphere Lithography, Tod V. Laurvick, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., James M. Sattler, Robert A. Lake
Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications
How surface geometries can be selectively manipulated through nanosphere lithography (NSL) is discussed. Self-assembled monolayers and multilayers of nanospheres have been studied for decades and have been applied to lithography for almost as long. When compared to the most modern, state-of-the-art techniques, NSL offers comparable feature resolution with many advantages over competing technologies. Several high-resolution alternatives require scan-based implementation (i.e., focused ion beams and e-beam lithography) while NSL is much more of a batch operation, allowing for full wafer or possibly even multiple wafer processing, potentially saving time and increasing throughput in a manufacturing environment. Additionally, NSL has continued to …
Electrostrictive Polymers For Mechanical-To-Electrical Energy Harvesting, William G. Kaval, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Robert A. Lake
Electrostrictive Polymers For Mechanical-To-Electrical Energy Harvesting, William G. Kaval, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Robert A. Lake
Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications
Research of electrostrictive polymers has generated new opportunities for harvesting energy from the surrounding environment and converting it into usable electrical energy. Piezoelectric ceramic based devices have long been used in energy harvesting for converting mechanical motion to electrical energy. Nevertheless, those materials tend to be unsuitable for low-frequency mechanical excitations such as human movement. Since organic polymers are typically softer and more flexible, the translated electrical energy output is considerably higher under the same mechanical force. Currently, investigations in using electroactive polymers for energy harvesting, and mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion, are beginning to show potential for this application. In this …
Integrating Nanosphere Lithography In Device Fabrication, Tod V. Laurvick, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Robert A. Lake
Integrating Nanosphere Lithography In Device Fabrication, Tod V. Laurvick, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Robert A. Lake
Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications
This paper discusses the integration of nanosphere lithography (NSL) with other fabrication techniques, allowing for nano-scaled features to be realized within larger microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based devices. Nanosphere self-patterning methods have been researched for over three decades, but typically not for use as a lithography process. Only recently has progress been made towards integrating many of the best practices from these publications and determining a process that yields large areas of coverage, with repeatability and enabled a process for precise placement of nanospheres relative to other features. Discussed are two of the more common self-patterning methods used in NSL (i.e. …