The process to create free standing films of MgF2 requires the film stack to survive a few different kinds of stresses. First, there is thermal stress from the mismatched coefficients of expansion (MgF2 expands about 5-10x more than silicon/silicon nitride), the stress of deposition (adatoms not finding their lowest energy position), and other mechanical stesses…

This update covers my efforts since our last skype meeting to show DNA size separation in a filter, as well as some very interesting TEM images of ALD-coated NPN and associated controls. Here is an inventory of my current chips: Oxide-spacer chips with nitride cap and no filter yet: 8 Oxide-spacer chips with nitride cap…

While I have been making nanoporous MgF2 for a while, it has become obvious that the strength of the material is handicapping our ability to generate data; as the membranes rupture we lose weeks of cell culture work. While we have generated some interesting Raman and cellular effects using the nanoporous MgF2 membranes, they are…

Just a quick update this time – since my last post I have been doing control experiments to demonstrate the effect of the filters. For the controls I have been using the chips without the nitride cap, since I am running low on the nitride ones (current I have 23 left, 7 with filters already…

For last 1.5 years, I have been working on developing a COMSOL model to understand how the geometry of pncSi chips affects the TEER values when cells are growing on them. I addressed this issues in some of my previous blog posts. What was lacking in the previous post (which I thought was the concluding…

Since my last update things have been going quite smoothly. Most pores I make are able to pass 3 or 4 samples before clogging, and I have filled in the various graphs quite nicely. I still would like to flesh out the low and high end of the DNA length spectrum, but I’ve started writing…

Hi all, just a quick posting to update you and deposit the current SOP and video instructions for PETLs. Nick has been working this summer on culturing cells on PETLs; its been slow, but we are finding that cells (HEKs) are happy growing on curated (cooked) EVA, not so much on the PET side. Right…

With changing my channel height to attempt to lower the Peclet number, one important factor that is affected is the transmembrane pressure. Decreasing the channel height will significantly increase the transmembrane pressure, which may stress the membrane and cause it to break. However, in addition to changing the channel height, I will also be changing…

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Hi all,   So this is slightly different from my previous post, but is perhaps much more important for the work that I am doing. This analysis is important because it allows us to determine the appropriate conditions at which to operate the system. Currently, I operate the device at a flow rate of 10 microliters/minute…