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Abstract This paper presents a computer-controlled multidirectional UV-LED lithography system for 3-D microfabrication. The presented UV-LED system has adopted adjustable or programmable high-intensity UV-LEDs as a light source enabling for photopatterning both thin and thick SU-8 photoresist process. The prototype of the proposed system comprises 5-by-5 surface-mounted type LEDs with customized collimation lens, a tilt-rotational sample holder for introducing multidirectional light exposure, and a computer-control asset for synchronized controls of the light source and the sample holder. An adjustable light intensity provides an ease of lithography both for a few micron feature size patterning and a millimeter thick photopatterning by providing optimal light exposure condition by considering diffraction, and absorption of the UV light. Together with the tilt-rotational sample holder, the multidirectional UV-LED lithography can fabricate various 3-D microstructures in a wide range of the photoresist film thickness. The 3-D fabrications include an array of micro triangle slabs, 1-mm tall pillar array, the different scale same 3-D geometry structures on the same substrate.

Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is an established and reliable surgical treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), where a covered stent is implanted to prevent blood flow in the aneurysm sac. Although current EVAR is an effective technique, it requires long-term monitoring for the post-operative complications (e.g., endoleak, stent occlusion), which usually requires expensive radiologic imaging techniques such as ultrasonography, computed tomography (CT), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this paper, we present an accessible and continuous post-EVAR surveillance scheme by developing a smart stent that features ultrasonic powering, blood flow sensing, and integrated wireless electronics. As the body of the smart stent, a piezoelectric membrane with a custom pore architecture is utilized. The benefits of the embedded pore architectures include the expansion and contraction to comply with a minimally invasive procedure and enhanced ultrasonic powering and sensing capability. The smart stent is able to expand up to 112% in diameter when stretched due to the negative Poisson's ratio. The ultrasound generates 0.23 mW of electrical power, which can sufficiently operate a low power wireless electronics. A comprehensive operation of the smart stent is demonstrated in vitro. The integrated flow sensor can measure blood flow ranging between 30 mL/min to 980 mL/min with an average sensitivity of 0.11 mV/mL/min. The wireless electronics transmit and receive such blood flow rate data by modulating the carrier frequency from 81 to 88 MHz from 1 m away. The developed smart stent prototype is the first step towards minimizing post-EVAR complications by providing early and frequent access to diagnostic information to patients and physicians.

Light plays an important role in influencing the nutritional quality of food crops, especially with regard to the health-promoting phytochemicals. However, its role in affecting the nutritional quality with regard to the essential nutrients is not well understood. In this study, the effects of preharvest UV-A treatment on the nutritional quality of lettuce (Lactuca sativa, cv. red-leaf ‘New Red Fire’ and green-leaf ‘Two Star’) in relation to the essential nutrients and health-promoting phytochemicals were explored. Lettuce plants were grown in a growth chamber and were subjected to supplemental UV-A LEDs (peak wavelength 375 nm) for a brief period (3–6 days) prior to harvest. UV-A LEDs were equipped with lenses to control the light dispersion. Many growth indices such as shoot fresh mass, leaf area, and leaf number were unaffected by supplemental UV-A in both varieties while shoot dry mass decreased in response to a 6-day UV-A treatment compared to the control. Leaf chlorophyll and carotenoid concentrations increased significantly in green-leaf lettuce after 3 or 6 days of UV-A treatment, but only after 3 days of UV-A treatment in red-leaf lettuce compared to the control. Leaf protein concentration increased significantly in both lettuce varieties along with a number of essential nutrients such as phosphorus, potassium, calcium, manganese, and sulfur in response to supplemental UV-A. Supplemental UV-A increased the accumulation of protein by approximately 48% in green-leaf lettuce and 31% in red-leaf lettuce compared to the control plants. Moreover, in addition to the above essential nutrients, green-leaf lettuce accumulated higher amounts of magnesium, copper, and zinc compared to the control plants, indicating that green-leaf lettuce was more responsive to preharvest supplemental UV-A treatment than red-leaf lettuce. However, the accumulation of total phenolic compounds and flavonoids in both varieties was lower under supplemental UV-A. Furthermore, the use of LED lenses did not have a consistent impact on most of the plant responses studied. Overall, the results indicate that a brief preharvest exposure of both red- and green-leaf lettuce varieties to UV-A increased their nutritional quality by enhancing the accumulation of protein and other major essential nutrients.

This paper presents a microlens fabrication process using the timed-development-and-thermal-reflow process, which can fabricate various types of aperture geometry with a parabolic profile on a single substrate in the same batch of the process. By controlling the development time of the uncrosslinked negative photoresist, a state of partial development of the photoresist is achieved, called the timed development process. The thermal reflow process is followed after the timed development, which allows the photoresist to regain its liquid state to form a smooth meniscus trench surrounded by a crosslinked photoresist sidewall. Microlens with larger aperture size forms deeper trench with constant development time. With constant aperture size, longer developing time shows deeper meniscus trench. The depth of the meniscus trench is modeled in the relationship of the development time and aperture size. Other characteristics for the microlens including the radius of curvature, focal length, and the parabolic surface profile are modeled in the relationship of the microlens thickness and diameter. Microlens with circular, square, and hexagonal bases have been successfully fabricated and demonstrated where each geometry of the lens-bases shows different fill factors of the lens arrays. To test the fabricated lenses, a miniaturized projection lithography scheme was proposed. A centimeter-scale photomask pattern was photo-reduced using the fabricated microlens array with a ratio of 133, where the smallest linewidth was measured as 2.6 µm.

This paper demonstrates a 3D microlithography system where an array of 5 mm Ultra Violet-Light Emitting Diode (UV-LED) acts as a light source. The unit of the light source is a UV-LED, which comes with a length of about 8.9 mm and a diameter of 5 mm. The whole light source comprises 20 × 20 matrix of such 5 mm UV-LEDs giving a total number of 400 LEDs which makes it a very favorable source with a large area for having a batch production of the desired microstructures. This light source is able to give a level of precision in microfabrication which cannot be obtained using commercial 3D printers. The whole light source performs continuous rotational movement once it is turned on. This can also move up and down in a vertical direction. This multidirectional light source also comprises a multidirectional sample holder. The light source teaming up with the multidirectional sample holder highly facilitates the process of fabrication of a huge range of 3D structures. This article also describes the different levels of characterization of the system and demonstrates several fabricated 3D microstructures including high aspect ratio vertical micro towers, twisted turbine structures, triangles, inclined pillar ‘V’ structures, and hollow horn structures as well.

We investigate the ac magnetic behavior of solution processable, non-stoichiometric zinc ferrite nanocrystals with a series of sizes and zinc concentrations. Nearly monodisperse ZnxFe3-xO4 nanocrystals (x = 0-0.25) with an average size ranging from 7.4 nm to 13.8 nm are synthesized by using a solvothermal method. All the nanocrystals are in a superparamagnetic state at 300 K, which is confirmed by Superconductive Quantum Interference Device magnetometry. Due to the doping of non-magnetic Zn2+ into A site of ferrite, the saturation magnetization of nanocrystals increases as the size and Zn concentration increases. The ac magnetic permeability measurements at radio frequencies reveal that the real part of the magnetic permeability of similarly sized ferrite nanocrystals can be enhanced by almost twofold as the Zn2+ doping level increases from 0 to 0.25. The integration of 12.3 nm Zn0.25Fe2.75O4 nanocrystals into a toroidal inductor and a solenoid inductor prepared via a simple solution cast process yields a higher quality factors than air core inductors with the same geometries up to 5MHz and 9MHz, respectively, which is in the regime of the switching frequencies for the advanced integrated power converters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rapid three-dimensional (3-D) ultraviolet (UV) lithography process for the fabrication of millimeter-tall high aspect ratio complex structures is presented. The liquid-state negative-tone photosensitive polyurethane, LF55GN, has been directly photopatterned using multidirectionally projected UV light for 3-D micropattern formation. The proposed lithographic scheme enabled us to overcome the maximum height obtained with a photo-patternable epoxy, SU8, which has been conventionally most commonly used for the fabrication of tall and high aspect ratio microstructures. Also, the fabrication process time has been significantly reduced by eliminating photoresist-baking steps. Computer-controlled multidirectional UV lithography has been employed to fabricate 3-D structures, where the UV-exposure substrate is dynamically tilt-rotating during UV exposure to create various 3-D ray traces in the polyurethane layer. LF55GN has been characterized to provide feasible fabrication conditions for the multidirectional UV lithography. Very tall structures including a 6-mm tall triangular slab and a 5-mm tall hexablaze have been successfully fabricated. A 4.5-mm tall air-lifted polymer-core bowtie monopole antenna, which is the tallest monopole structure fabricated by photolithography and subsequent metallization, has been successfully demonstrated. The antenna shows a resonant radiation frequency of 12.34 GHz, a return loss of 36 dB, and a 10 dB bandwidth of 7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a computer-numerical-controlled ultraviolet light-emitting diode (CNC UV-LED) lithography scheme for three-dimensional (3D) microfabrication. The CNC lithography scheme utilizes sequential multi-angled UV light exposures along with a synchronized switchable UV light source to create arbitrary 3D light traces, which are transferred into the photosensitive resist. The system comprises a switchable, movable UV-LED array as a light source, a motorized tilt-rotational sample holder, and a computer-control unit. System operation is such that the tilt-rotational sample holder moves in a pre-programmed routine, and the UV-LED is illuminated only at desired positions of the sample holder during the desired time period, enabling the formation of complex 3D microstructures. This facilitates easy fabrication of complex 3D structures, which otherwise would have required multiple manual exposure steps as in the previous multidirectional 3D UV lithography approach. Since it is batch processed, processing time is far less than that of the 3D printing approach at the expense of some reduction in the degree of achievable 3D structure complexity. In order to produce uniform light intensity from the arrayed LED light source, the UV-LED array stage has been kept rotating during exposure. UV-LED 3D fabrication capability was demonstrated through a plurality of complex structures such as V-shaped micropillars, micropanels, a micro-‘hi’ structure, a micro-‘cat’s claw,’ a micro-‘horn,’ a micro-‘calla lily,’ a micro-‘cowboy’s hat,’ and a micro-‘table napkin’ array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the fabrication and modeling of three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures by automated multidirectional ultraviolet (UV) lithography, which is a fast, cost-effective, manufacturable fabrication method. Multidirectional UV exposure is performed using a static UV light source equipped with a tilt-rotational substrate holder. A glass substrate with a nanopatterned chrome layer is utilized as both a photomask and a substrate, for which a backside UV exposure scheme is used. For the analytical modeling of the shape of fabricated nanostructures, UV exposure dosage, diffraction and refraction effects, and absorption rate are taken into account. For more accurate process predictive models, a commercially available multiphysics simulation tool is used. The structural shapes predicted from analytical calculation and simulation are compared with the fabricated ones for which various 3D nanoscale test structures are fabricated such as an inclined nanopillar array and a vertical triangular slab. Also, nanostructures with multiple heights are successfully implemented from single layer photoresist by controlling the UV exposure dosage and tilt angles. A tripod embedded horn and a triangular-slab embedded horn are demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer-controlled dynamic mode multidirectional ultraviolet (UV) lithography has been demonstrated using a collimated UV light source, a substrate-holding stage equipped with two stepper motors (one for tilting and the other for rotation), a controller with programming software and a laptop computer. The tilting and rotational angles of the stage in motion are accurately controlled during UV exposure as programmed by the user to produce complex three-dimensional (3D) microstructures. Process parameters include the initial and final tilting and rotational angles of the stage, and the relative angular velocities of the two motors in addition to the normal fabrication process parameters of UV lithography such as optical dose, baking time, and developing time and condition. Symmetric patterns can be generated by a simple synchronous mode dynamic operation, where both the angular velocities of the tilting motion and the rotating motion are set equal or harmonically related. More complex and non-symmetric patterns can be obtained using a piecewise synchronous mode, where the relationship between the angular velocities of the two motors is described not with a single coefficient but with a set of coefficients. 3D structures fabricated from the synchronous mode operation include the four-leaf clover horn and the cardiac horn while the ones from the piecewise synchronous mode are a vertical triangular slab, a screwed wind vane and arbitrary shape horns. Ray trace simulation has been performed using a mathematical tool in a spherical coordinate system and the simulated 3D patterns show good agreement with the fabricated ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]