First results on polyimide deposition

My original post reported burst pressures on rectangular windows with the chips trench side down in the fixture (pressure from below). These values are low compared to square window pressures. My pressures ranged from 2 psi to 12 psi while square windows achieved 10 psi to 50 psi (Sarah Wayson’s post on square windows). So I did a limited set…

Since our attempt to standardize the Staphylococcus aureus µSiM-CA division assay, described here, we have moved towards investigating biological reasons as to why our assay performance is not where we want it to be. While biofilms have been suspect from the beginning, we have also thought that bacterial transmission requires two main steps: 1) Pore discovery…

In my initial report on the Young’s modulus of pnc-Si, I used the generalized pressure-displacement equation to fit my experimental data to extract a Young’s modulus of around 100 GPa (Polysilicon is ~150 GPa). Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of variability in the residual stress in these experiments. I believe this variability was due…

Maryna told me the UV/ozone cleaner did not work (the blue light in front of the chamber did not light up) when she was working with Dave today. I quickly checked the machine and it is actually working properly. The trick is to make sure you trigger the “safety lock” behind the chamber before you…

The first DNA extraction was done over 150 years ago in 18691. Since then, the process has been refined and expanded to include multiple physical and or chemical methods. For the waste water epidemiology project (described here), we will be focusing on DNA extraction via silica adsorption without the use of chaotropic agents. The mechanism…

These experiments were conducted during the week of 5/10/2010 – 5/14/2010. To recap on this project, Barrett and I have been working with Dr. Harold Smith in the hopes of developing a drug screening test that consists of small-scale diffusions. In these experiments, we are working with APOBEC3G (A3G), a protein-RNA complex that is active…