As part of my work over at the University of Nottingham, I’ve been using iBidi devices to grow cells. Eventually, I will use their product to do Raman studies of cells grown on my MgF2 substrates. I’ve been making some progress towards that end using PDMS (I’ve been using 10:1 base to curing agent for…
Jirachai’s recent post on the formation of Au nanoparticles on the surface of the NPN is very exciting. For one, it is a very dense monolayer of particles. This self assembly mechanism is magnificent whereas if we tried to dry down a layer of particles, we would get a cake layer similar to what Josh…
I had previously manufactured some freestanding MgF2 nanomembranes (50 nm MgF2, starting from Wafer Template 1174) for my work here in Nottingham. I shipped about 75 chips at the beginning of July in my 3d printed holders, however, they arrived with a noticeable film discoloration (tending to blue/tan, rather than the nice purple color I had…
Notes from the ECM4 conference Met with Mathew Halls from Schrodinger. He was curious about what I did, came up, gave me his card. Apparently he knows Chin Tang. He’s giving a talk on the last day. Opening Remarks – Bob Collier – Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce European Capital of Oil and Gas. 25% of…
Our collaborator Fernando has made a really nifty way to make microfluidics work with lamination pouches. These flat pouches can be sealed together using a heat activated glue, which can be done consistently using a 15 for a 100-pack of 8.5″x12″ pouches + $40 laminator Put multiple materials and multiple chips in the same microfluidic package….
Continuing my work from last week, Tucker used the same tenting (NPN, vapor transfer) and incubation procedure (20 nm and 60 nm Au particles) on an oxide substrate with posts (200 nm high). The substrate was dessicated in the 70C oven overnight. No additional platinum or gold coatings were made. The sample was tilted slightly…
Summary: I have some ok images (20x) of cells growing on MgF2. My controls still look poor. Something about the stain is causing the TCP + NPN controls to detach ahead of the MgF2 material, even if they aren’t fully dead yet. I used acetone fixation, which worked well for the materials on the nanomembrane, but…
To test the filtration capabilities of our tents, Tucker and I immersed a tented (wafer 1150, ~30 nm pores) oxide structure (~3 um hole diameter, 200 nm high) and a nontented structure in a solution containing 60 nm (.043 nM) and 10 nm (~10 uM) Au nanoparticles for 1 hour (2 uL incubation volume), rinsed them…
I have been having problems getting smoothed sheets of nanomembrane on my little oxide structures. I tried a number of different ways to delaminate the membrane, using tweezers to poke the membrane especially, but had little success getting smoothed sheets. I tried compressing the two chips together using the burst pressure clamp, then poking it…
I have lost many chips during my MgF2 or Au or Pt process due to yield problems with my RIE. I have wondered if the problem was due to power spikes. I have observed that my most poorly yielding etch runs usually have uneven power or power spikes during the run. Increasing window size (active area)…