Microneedles hold the potential for enabling shallow skin penetration applications where biomarkers are extracted from the interstitial fluid (ISF) and drugs are injected in a painless and effective manner. To this purpose, needles must have an inner channel. Channeled needles were demonstrated using custom silicon microtechnology, having several needle tip geometries. Nevertheless, all the proposed fabrication sequences are not compatible with mass production based on mature, standard microfabrication techniques. Furthermore, ISF extraction was also demonstrated with channeled needles but under poorly controlled conditions and over long periods of time, the latter being impractical for medical use. A range of factors may impede or slow ISF extraction that require controlled experiments. In this work we address the above tasks in terms of microfabrication sequence design, tip geometry design and experimental validation under controlled conditions. We report the development and fabrication of a silicon channeled microneedle array using conventional, industrial micromechanic processes. With only 2 lithography steps, a hypodermic needle tip profile is achieved. Using the fabricated microneedles, fluid extraction is experimented on chicken skin mockups. Extraction tests are carried out by inducing a controlled pressure gradient between the two ends of the microneedle channels, generated by loading the chip or by applying vacuum to the chip's backside. The extraction of more than 1 μL of fluid in 20 minutes is demonstrated with a maximum applied pressure gradient of 500 mbar. A correlation between the extraction rate efficiency and needles' density is observed, both for short and long extraction times. These results provide the first demonstration of in vitro interstitial fluid collection under controlled experimental conditions using silicon hollow microneedles fabricated with standard micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication technology and minimal steps. Based on the obtained data, a comparison is drawn between pressure load and vacuum as drivers for ISF extraction, according to modelling and controlled experiments.

Metal oxide thin films show promising resistive switching properties, making them materials of reference for the development of memristive devices. TiO2 is probably one of the most studied materials and is being synthesized using various techniques, each of them having specific optimizable characteristics. In this paper, we report on an innovative approach by combining the sol–gel and the pulsed microplasma cluster source (PMCS) methods, exploiting the low temperature and low cost of the former process and precise control over nanocristallinity of the latter. We show that this approach overcomes the reported limitations that each technique shows in fabricating memristive devices when independently used. A side-by-side comparison of the TiO2 thin films produced by the PMCS, sol–gel, and PMCS/sol–gel hybrid methods (HM) demonstrates an improvement of the memristive properties and a reduction of the electrical shorts in the TiO2 based devices.

It is well known that the packaging of electronic devices is of paramount importance, none more so than in MEMS were fragile mechanical elements are realized. Among the different approaches, wafer to wafer bonding guarantees the advantages of the wafer scaling and provides protection of the devices during the final phase of fabrication. Direct bonding, also known as fusion bonding, is seldom implemented in MEMS fabrication due to the high surface quality required, the high temperature involved and the compulsory wet activation process. In this paper a direct bonding process for MEMS inertial sensor without the need of any wet activation step is presented.

Many efforts have been spent in the last decade for the development of nanoscale synaptic devices integrated into neuromorphic circuits, trying to emulate the behavior of natural synapses. The study of brain properties with the standard approaches based on biocompatible electrodes coupled to conventional electronics, however, presents strong limitations, which in turn could be overcame by the in-situ growth of neuronal networks coupled to memristive devices. To meet this challenging task, here two different chips were designed and fabricated for culturing neuronal cells and sensing their electrophysiological activity. The first chip was designed to be connected to an external memristor, while the second chip was coated with TiO2 films owning memristive properties. The biocompatibility of chips was preliminary analyzed by culturing the hybrid motor-neuron cell line NSC-34 and by measuring the electrical activity of cells interfacing the chip with a standard patch-clamp setup. Next, neurons were seeded on chips and their activity measured with the same setup. For both cell types total current and voltage responses were evoked and recorded with optimal results with no breakdowns. In addition, an external stimulation was applied to cells through chip electrodes, being effective and causing no damage or pitfalls to the cells. Finally, the whole bio-hybrid system, i.e. the chip interconnected with a commercial memristor, was tested with promising results. Spontaneous electrical activity of neurons grown on the chip was indeed present and this signal was collected and sent to the memristor, changing its state. Taken together, we demonstrated the ability of memristor to work with a synaptic/plastic response together with natural systems, opening the way for the further implementation of basic computing elements able to perform both storage and processing of data, as in natural neurons.

In this paper a novel approach is presented to prepare flexible and transparent conducting films, whose components can be separated and recovered via a recycling process. The fabrication method is based on low power sputtering of ultrathin gold layers on sodium alginate free-standing films. The resulting foils are thin, easy to handle, and shape, while showing good conductive properties. In particular, they show excellent resistance to mechanical stress, like bending or rubbing, and are highly stable in ambient atmosphere over several months. Therefore they may represent a very promising candidate to be employed in green electronics, thanks to the reduced energy consumption required for their fabrication, the absence of toxic components or chemicals that are derived from oil, and the possibility to disassemble the devices at the end of their life in environmentally friendly conditions.

The electrical response of Pt/TiO2/Pt with an atmosphere-controlled structure of a switching layer depends on electroforming parameters and architecture.

Department of Industrial Engineering, Univ Trento, Italy. E-mail: valentina.prusakova@ FBK, CMM – MICROSYSTEMS, Via Somma FBK, LABSSAH, Via Sommarive 18, 38123 T CNR-IFN, CSMFO Lab., Via Alla Cascata 5 FBK, CMM – MNF, Via Sommarive 18, 381 CNR-IMEM, Via Alla Cascata 56/C, 38123 T Department of Physics, University of Trento Division of Materials Physics, Laboratory Institute, Bijenička c. 54, Zagreb, Croatia Research Unit New Functional Materials, Ce and Sensing Devices, Bijenička c. 54, Zagreb † Electronic supplementary informa 10.1039/c6ra25618j Cite this: RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 1654

Herein, we report a memristive response from Pt/TiO2/Ta2O5/Pt stack thin films with low SET and RESET voltages, and resistance ratio of 103. For the first time, Pt/TiO2/Ta2O5 stack thin films were produced by sol-gel procedure. The morphology and elemental composition of Pt/TiO2/Ta2O5 stacks were studied by a set of complementary techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), field-emission electron microscopy (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The thickness of the material was estimated from the transmittance spectrum by Pointwise Unconstrained Optimization Approach (PUMA).

The Sol-gel route is a versatile method to fabricate multi-layer, dense and homogeneous ZnO thin films with a controlled thickness and defects for a memristive application. In this work, sol-gel derived multi-layer undoped and Al-doped ZnO thin films were prepared by a spin-coating technique on SiO2/Ti/Pt and silica glass substrates. The effect of both Al doping and curing conditions on the structural and morphological features of ZnO films was investigated by complementary techniques, including electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis. Electrical measurements were performed on SiO2/Ti/Pt/ZnO/Pt(dishes) and SiO2/Ti/Pt/ZnO(Al)/Pt(dishes) fabricated memristive cells and preliminary current-voltage curves were acquired.

Sol-gel derived multi-layer ZnO films were prepared by spin coating technique on soda-lime glass, silica, silicon and platinum substrates from an alcoholic solution of zinc acetate dihydrate and monoethanolamine at different synthetic conditions. The curing and annealing conditions for the ZnO films were adjusted based on the study performed on the ZnO xerogel powders. Structural and morphological features as well as the thermal behavior of the samples were investigated by complementary techniques including electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses, and X-ray diffraction analysis. According to the electrical measurements performed on ZnO thin films sandwiched between Pt/Ti/SiO2 substrate and Ag dishes as a top electrode, the selected fabrication conditions were suitable for fulfilling the requirements of active resistive layers for the development of memristive devices.

We propose a multi-technique approach based on in-vacuum synthesis of metal oxides to optimize the memristive properties of devices that use a metal oxide thin film as insulating layer. Pulsed Microplasma Cluster Source (PMCS) is based on supersonic beams seeded by clusters of the metal oxide. Nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films can be grown at room temperature, controlling the oxide stoichiometry from titanium metal up to a significant oxygen excess. Pulsed Electron beam Deposition (PED) is suitable to grow crystalline thin films on large areas, a step towards producing device arrays with controlled morphology and stoichiometry. Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is a powerful technique to grow materials layer-by-layer, finely controlling the chemical and structural properties of the film up to thickness of 50-80 nm. We will present a few examples of metal-insulator-metal structures showing a pinched hysteresis loop in their current-voltage characteristic. The structure, stoichiometry and morphology of the metal oxide layer, either aluminum oxide or titanium dioxide, is investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by Raman scattering.

Herein, we developed a series of Pt/TiO2/Pt/Ti/SiO2 resistive switching materials with a variation in chemical composition of TiO2 in an attempt to evaluate the parameters affecting the memristive switching behavior and, therefore, to optimize and control it. Different chemical compositions of TiO2 were obtained by annealing the films at 400 °C for 1 hour in diverse atmospheric conditions, such as air, vacuum and oxygen environments. The elemental composition of the produced samples was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), revealing the different stoichiometric ratio of Ti/O and doping/contamination with silicon, carbon, and nitrogen depending on the annealing conditions. The preliminary I-V curves were acquired with Pt dish or wire, serving as a top electrode. The results showed a superior stability, durability and reproducibility of the resistive switch behavior observed in the samples containing oxidized silicon impurities. In addition to the electrical studies, the evolution of Pt dish top electrode was monitored by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), revealing mechanical and electrochemical damage of the electrode during the electroforming step.

Sol-gel derived TiO2 thin films were prepared by spin-coating from an alcoholic solution of titanium isopropoxide. With the aim to develop titania layers suitable for memristive devices, the films were deposited onto test structures based on fused silica quartz substrates patterned with a Ti(5nm)/Pt (50nm) layer. The reported fabrication protocol is suitable for the development of a memristive device. Optical, structural, and morphological features of the samples were investigated with complementary techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), prism coupling m-line and micro-Raman spectroscopy as well as transmittance and profilometry measurements. The quality of the surface of the obtained films was evaluated by SEM technique, and the morphology of samples deposited with different fabrication protocols was investigated. Additionally, a computer code for the refractive index and thickness estimation from the transmittance spectra was developed by unconstrained optimization procedure. The results of simulation were in good agreement with the experimental data obtained by m-line measurements. Moreover, the porosity of a specific set of test unannealed films has been estimated. TiO2 films exhibit thickness of tens of nm, and micro-Raman spectroscopy in conjunction with SEM indicate the presence of anatase phase after thermal annealing at 400 degrees C. (C) 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

We report an optofluidic ring resonator sensor based on liquid-core hybrid silicon-polymer waveguides. The device features a planar layout that combines optical and fluidic functions on the same platform. A high quality factor of 1.44 × 104 is achieved. The device resonant wavelength shift has been measured as a function of the water-core temperature, obtaining a temperature sensitivity of 0.0633 nm/°C. Based on the thermo-optic effect of water, this corresponds to a bulk refractive index (RI) sensitivity of ~700 nm per RI unit (RIU), resulting in the RI limit of detection of ~1.57 × 10-6 RIU. The planar architecture combined with an optofluidic design concept holds the promise of high functionality and compactness toward a complete on-chip integrated sensing system.

An unconventional approach to impedance microbiology for Escherichia coli detection is under investigation. The detection principle of solution conductivity variation is based on intracellular content escape resulting from bacteriophage cell lysis. Bare electrodes on-chip included in a PDMS chamber were applied to the impedance measurements. Proofs of principle experiments were performed. In parallel, paramagnetic nano-beads were functionalised with selective phages for sample magnetic concentration and future methods integration. The system potential detection limit is about 10 CFU/chamber and provides the means for selective detection of viable cells. The methods integration could provide cost–effective results in less than 1 hour.