Mingliang Jin

Large Area Metal Nanowire Arrays with Tunable Sub-20 nm Nanogaps

We report a new top-down nanofabrication technology to realize large area metal nanowire (m-NW) arrays with tunable sub-20 nm separation nanogaps without the use of chemical etching or milling of the metal layer. The m-NW array nanofabrication technology is based on a self-regulating metal deposition process that is facilitated by closely spaced and isolated heterogeneous template surfaces that confine the metal deposition into two dimensions, and therefore, electrically isolated parallel arrays of m-NW can be realized with uniform and controllable nanogaps. Au-NW and Ag-NW arrays are presented with high-density ~10(5) NWs cm(-1), variable NW diameters down to ~50 nm, variable nanogaps down to ~5 nm, and very large nanogap length density ~1 km cm(-2). The m-NW arrays are designed and implemented as interdigitated nanoelectrodes for electrochemical applications and as plasmonic substrates where the coupled-mode localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength in the nanogaps between adjacent m-NW dimers can be precisely tuned to match any excitation source in the range from 500 to 1000 nm, thus providing optimal local electromagnetic field enhancement. A spatially averaged (n = 2500) surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) analytical enhancement factor of (1.2 ± 0.1) × 10(7) is demonstrated from a benzenethiol monolayer chemisorbed on a Au-NW array substrate with LSPR wavelength matched to a He-Ne laser source.

Large-area nanogap plasmon resonator arrays for plasmonics applications

Large-area (∼8000 mm(2)) Au nanogap plasmon resonator array substrates manufactured using maskless laser interference lithography (LIL) with high uniformity are presented. The periodically spaced subwavelength nanogap arrays are formed between adjacent nanopyramid (NPy) structures with precisely defined pitch and high length density (∼1 km cm(-2)), and are ideally suited as scattering sites for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), as well as refractive index sensing. The two-dimensional grid arrangement of NPy structures renders the excitation of the plasmon resonators minimally dependent on the incident polarization. The SERS average enhancement factor (AEF) has been characterized using over 30 000 individual measurements of benzenethiol (BT) chemisorbed on the Au NPy surfaces. From the 1(a(1)), β(CCC) + ν(CS) ring mode (1074 cm(-1)) of BT on surfaces with pitch λ(g) = 200 nm, AEF = 0.8 × 10(6) and for surfaces with λ(g) = 500 nm, AEF = 0.3 × 10(7) from over 99% of the imaged spots. Maximum AEFs > 10(8) have been measured in both cases.

Breath Figure Method for Construction of Honeycomb Films

Honeycomb films with various building units, showing potential applications in biological, medical, physicochemical, photoelectric, and many other areas, could be prepared by the breath figure method. The ordered hexagonal structures formed by the breath figure process are related to the building units, solvents, substrates, temperature, humidity, air flow, and other factors. Therefore, by adjusting these factors, the honeycomb structures could be tuned properly. In this review, we summarized the development of the breath figure method of fabricating honeycomb films and the factors of adjusting honeycomb structures. The organic-inorganic hybrid was taken as the example building unit to discuss the preparation, mechanism, properties, and applications of the honeycomb films.

Screen-printing fabrication of electrowetting displays based on poly(imide siloxane) and polyimide

Abstract We report a screen-printing fabrication process for large area electrowetting display (EWD) devices using polyimide-based materials. The poly(imide siloxane) was selected as hydrophobic insulator layer, and relatively hydrophilic polyimide as grids material. EWD devices that use poly(imide siloxane) as hydrophobic insulator fabricated with conventional methods showed good and reversible electrowetting performance on both single droplet level and device level, which showed its potential application in EWDs. The compatibility of polyimide-based materials (hydrophobic poly(imide siloxane) and hydrophilic polyimide) guarantee the good adhesion between two layers and the capability of printable fabrication. To this end, the hydrophilic grids have been successfully built on hydrophobic layer by screen-printing directly. The resulting EWD devices showed good switch performance and relatively high yield. Compared to conventional method, the polyimide-based materials and method offer the advantages of simple, cheap and fast fabrication, and are especially suitable for large area display fabrication.

Microfluidics for electronic paper-like displays

Displays are ubiquitous in modern life, and there is a growing need to develop active, full color, video-rate reflective displays that perform well in high-light conditions. The core of display technology is to generate or manipulate light in the visible wavelength. Colored fluids or fluids with particles can be used to tune the light intensity (greyscale) or wavelength (colors) of reflective displays by different actuation methods. Microfluidic technology plays an increasing role in fluidic manipulation in microscale devices used in display areas. In this article, we will review microfluidic technologies based on different actuation methods used for display applications: pressure-driven flow, electrophoresis, electroosmosis, electrowetting, magnetic-driven flow, and cell-actuation principles.

Novel Driving Methods for Manipulating Oil Motion in Electrofluidic Display Pixels

By applying driving voltage schemes with different rising gradient and the same final voltage in an electrofluidic display device (EFD), several kinds of oil patterns have been generated. The results show that, in the initial stage of oil film splitting and contraction, driving voltage has a crucial influence on the microfluidic behavior and oil distribution in each pixel. Oil patterns significantly affect the pixel aperture and, ultimately, the reflectivity of the display panel. The oil pattern with fewer oil droplets has a higher aperture ratio and higher reflectivity. The observation that oil patterns can be controlled by varying driving schemes offers a new way of manipulating oil motion in EFD pixels.

A novel driver for active matrix electrowetting displays

Abstract Electrowetting display (EWD) is a reflective display technology in which fluidic pixels can response and switch quickly by electronic control, showing the capability for video-speed reflective display applications. In this paper, a new driver system is proposed and realized for video playing function of active matrix electrowetting display (AM-EWD). The hardware system is designed based on Field-Programmable-Gate-Array (FPGA) and the existing electrophoretic display (EPD) driving integrated chips (IC). A driving logic circuit and FPGA software is introduced for providing the EWD system with driving and timing control. And a set of specific driving waveforms, which is loaded to a lookup table of the FPGA in advance, is designed to display grayscale on EWDs. 4-level gray scale videos have been successfully performed by applying the driving waveforms. To our knowledge, such work has not been reported before.

Improvement of video playback performance of electrophoretic displays by optimized waveforms with shortened refresh time

Abstract Electrophoretic display (EPD) has become one of the most important display technologies due to its bistability, low power consumption and outdoor readability. In this work, an image processing algorithm, which aims to enable video playback on EPD device without image distortion and grayscale loss by reducing the particle moving distance in EPD, is proposed and verified. The refresh time could be shortened by 22.2% with a video playback speed of more than 10 frames per second (fps) being achieved. This method could reduce the EPD switching time for quicker information displaying, and potentially extend the applications of EPD with video-like display property in the future.

Ultrasensitive DNA detection based on two-step quantitative amplification on magnetic nanoparticles.

Sensitive detection of a specific deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA) sequence is important for biomedical applications. In this report, a two-step amplification strategy is developed based on magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to achieve ultrasensitive DNA fluorescence detection. The first level amplification is obtained from multiple binding sites on MNPs to achieve thousands of probe DNA molecules on one nanoparticle surface. The second level amplification is gained by enzymatic reaction to achieve fluorescence signal enhancement. MNPs functionalized by probe DNA (DNAp) are bound to target DNA (t-DNA) molecules with a ratio of 1:1 on a substrate with capture DNA (DNAc). After the MNPs with DNAp are released from the substrate, alkaline phosphatase (AP) is labelled to MNPs via hybridization reaction between DNAp on MNPs and detection DNAs (DNAd) with AP. The AP on MNPs catalyses non-fluorescent 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate (4-MUP) to fluorescent 4-methylumbelliferone (4-MU) with high intensity. Finally, fluorescence intensity of the 4-MU is detected by a conventional fluorescence spectrophotometer. With this two-step amplification strategy, the limit of detection (LOD) of 2.8 × 10(-18) mol l(-1) for t-DNA has been achieved.

Two-Layer Microstructures Fabricated by One-Step Anisotropic Wet Etching of Si in KOH Solution

Anisotropic etching of silicon in potassium hydroxide (KOH) is an important technology in micromachining. The residue deposition from KOH etching of Si is typically regarded as a disadvantage of this technology. In this report, we make use of this residue as a second masking layer to fabricate two-layer complex structures. Square patterns with size in the range of 15–150 μm and gap distance of 5 μm have been designed and tested. The residue masking layer appears when the substrate is over-etched in hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution over a threshold. The two-layer structures of micropyramids surrounded by wall-like structures are obtained according to the two different masking layers of SiO2 and residue. The residue masking layer is stable and can survive over KOH etching for long time to achieve deep Si etching. The process parameters of etchant concentration, temperature, etching time and pattern size have been investigated. With well-controlled two-layer structures, useful structures could be designed for applications in plasmonic and microfluidic devices in the future.