Compact Device Size Research Articles

Periodic Flows in Microfluidics.

Microfluidics, the science and technology of manipulating fluids in microscale channels, offers numerous advantages, such as low energy consumption, compact device size, precise control, fast reaction, and enhanced portability. These benefits have led to applications in biomedical assays, disease diagnostics, drug discovery, neuroscience, and so on. Fluid flow within microfluidic channels is typically in the laminar flow region, which is characterized by low Reynolds numbers but brings the challenge of efficient mixing of fluids. Periodic flows are time-dependent fluid flows, featuring repetitive patterns that can significantly improve fluid mixing and extend the effective length of microchannels for submicron and nanoparticle manipulation. Besides, periodic flow is crucial in organ-on-a-chip (OoC) for accurately modeling physiological processes, advancing disease understanding, drug development, and personalized medicine. Various techniques for generating periodic flows have been reported, including syringe pumps, peristalsis, and actuation based on electric, magnetic, acoustic, mechanical, pneumatic, and fluidic forces, yet comprehensive reviews on this topic remain limited. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of periodic flows in microfluidics, from fundamental mechanisms to generation techniques and applications. The challenges and future perspectives are also discussed to exploit the potential of periodic flows in microfluidics.

Large‐Range Beam Steering through Dynamic Manipulation of Topological Charges

AbstractDynamic tuning of light properties by external stimuli is at the core of various applications such as electro‐optical modulators, beam steering, and spatial light modulators. The conventional mechanism involves fine‐tuning the eigenmode of an optical system through adjusting the effective refractive index. However, the weak nonlinearity results in low modulation efficiency, leading to devices with poor performance and large size. Polarization topological charge is a significant concept that has facilitated the development of innovative optical devices like low‐threshold lasers and vortex generators. But the devices reported so far are static in nature. Here, a method for dynamically controlling light by actively manipulating the evolution of topological charges in momentum space is first presented. By switching between integer and half‐integer states of topological charges, the device's radiation properties undergo a significant transformation. The beam direction can be tuned up to 160°, which, to the best of the authors' knowledge, is the largest tuning angle among similar beam steering devices. Furthermore, the device demonstrates high radiation efficiency while maintaining a compact device size. This light controlling method can be applied in various fields, including optical communication, tunable lasers, and light detection and ranging.

High-speed electro-optic modulation in topological interface states of a one-dimensional lattice

Electro-optic modulators are key components in data communication, microwave photonics, and quantum photonics. Modulation bandwidth, energy efficiency, and device dimension are crucial metrics of modulators. Here, we provide an important direction for the miniaturization of electro-optic modulators by reporting on ultracompact topological modulators. A topological interface state in a one-dimensional lattice is implemented on a thin-film lithium-niobate integrated platform. Due to the strong optical confinement of the interface state and the peaking enhancement of the electro-optic response, a topological cavity with a size of 1.6 × 140 μm2 enables a large modulation bandwidth of 104 GHz. The first topological modulator exhibits the most compact device size compared to reported LN modulators with bandwidths above 28 GHz, to the best of our knowledge. 100 Gb/s non-return-to-zero and 100 Gb/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation signals are generated. The switching energy is 5.4 fJ/bit, owing to the small electro-optic mode volume and low capacitance. The topological modulator accelerates the response time of topological photonic devices from the microsecond order to the picosecond order and provides an essential foundation for the implementation of large-scale lithium-niobate photonic integrated circuits.

Notch Microwave Photonic Filter With Narrow Bandwidth and Ultra-High All-Optical Tuning Efficiency Based on a Silicon Nanobeam Cavity

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a narrowband notch microwave photonic filter (MPF) with an ultra-high all-optical tuning efficiency based on an optimized high-quality (Q) nanobeam photonic crystal (PhC) cavity. By optimizing the structural parameters, the hole shapes and the waveguide width of the cavity, a silicon nanobeam cavity with a theoretical high-Q factor of 4×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">8</sup> , a small mode volume (V) of 0.32(λ/ <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</i> ) <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> and a compact size of 6 μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> could be obtained. Due to the extremely high Q/V ratio beyond 1×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">9</sup> , the nonlinear effects in the cavity could be efficiently excited, which is beneficial for on-chip low-power signal processing. In the experiment, by adjusting the wavelength of the optical carrier, the central frequency of the notch MPF could be widely tuned from 1 GHz to 40 GHz with maintaining the 3dB-bandwidth around 198 MHz and rejection ratios beyond 50 dB. On the other side, the central frequency of the MPF could be all-optically tuned based on the nonlinear effects in the cavity. Owing to the cavity extremely high Q/V ratio, the MPF frequency can be adjusted with an ultra-high tuning efficiency of 308.8 GHz/mW. To the best of our knowledge, whether the notch MPF narrow 3dB-bandwidth of 198 MHz or the all-optical tuning efficiency of 308.8 GHz/mW is a record value among the reported silicon-cavity-based notch MPFs with such a compact device size. With the dominant advantages of sub-gigahertz narrowband, wide tuning range, ultra-high all-optical tuning efficiency and extremely compact cavity size, the proposed MPFs illustrate competitive performance for on-chip microwave signal processing.

Snapshot multi-dimensional computational imaging through a liquid crystal diffuser

Multi-dimensional optical imaging systems that simultaneously gather intensity, depth, polarimetric, and spectral information have numerous applications in medical sciences, robotics, and surveillance. Nevertheless, most current approaches require mechanical moving parts or multiple modulation processes and thus suffer from long acquisition time, high system complexity, or low sampling resolution. Here, a methodology to build snapshot multi-dimensional lensless imaging is proposed by combining planar-optics and computational technology, benefiting from sufficient flexibilities in optical engineering and robust information reconstructions. Specifically, a liquid crystal diffuser based on geometric phase modulation is designed to simultaneously encode the spatial, spectral, and polarization information of an object into a snapshot detected speckle pattern. At the same time, a post-processing algorithm acts as a special decoder to recover the hidden information in the speckle with the independent and unique point spread function related to the position, wavelength, and chirality. With the merits of snapshot acquisition, multi-dimensional perception ability, simple optical configuration, and compact device size, our approach can find broad potential applications in object recognition and classification.

Metamaterial Integrated Folded Dipole Antenna with Low SAR for 4G, 5G and NB-IoT Applications

The fast growth of wireless technology for mobile communication devices requires broad bandwidth, high data rate facilities and compact device size. The solution to the next generation user equipment is high data rate 4G/5G technologies. In this research, wideband antenna design was analyzed and evaluated for 4G, 5G and NB-IoT applications. CST microwave studio was used for simulations and investigations of the performance parameters. The antenna was designed as a folded dipole with a tunable bandwidth and resonates for 5G NR n78, NR-IoT bands B1, B2, and B25, and eleven TDD LTE frequency bands with a bandwidth percentage and minimum scattering loss of 69.02% and −42 dB respectively. Additionally, the designed antenna is small (35 × 48 × 1.62 mm3) and planar in structure and can be easily integrated with radio equipment. The antenna design was also investigated for SAR minimization and gain enhancement using metamaterial integration. For all operating frequency bands, the antenna design results in a considerable gain improvement. The metamaterial was shown to be an excellent absorber of radiation, particularly in high frequency regions. This research also included a SAR examination with and without metamaterial integration. SAR values were found to be significantly reduced throughout all operating bands. The results were validated by fabricating the design prototype on FR-4 substrate for 4G, 5G and IoT bands. The antenna will be possibly used for communication in high data rate applications.

Electrocaloric cooling over high device temperature span

Summary Electrocaloric cooling demonstrates direct electricity utilization and high energy efficiency, and is often proposed as an environmentally benign, solid-state alternative to the conventional vapor compression cooling technology. As a result, the fabrication of effective electrocaloric materials and engineering of electrocaloric cooling devices have attracted increasing attention in the cooling community. However, the limited material adiabatic temperature change under safe operation field poses a major challenge to practical electrocaloric cooling device development, since real-world applications usually require device temperature span over 20 K. This perspective presents recent efforts devoted to design electrocaloric cooling devices based on active heat regeneration and cascading approaches; both strategies have achieved significant device temperature lift ~10 K with adiabatic temperature change of 2~3 K. The strategies discussed in this work are broadly applicable to the design of efficient and compact cooling systems.

Broadband and high extinction ratio hybrid plasmonic waveguide-based TE-pass polarizer using multimode interference

A TE-pass polarizer based on multiple hybrid plasmonic waveguides (HPWs) is proposed, where the polarizer section consists of four symmetrically placed HPWs and a single-mode silicon waveguide in between. Owing to the strong polarization-dependent absorption loss of the multiple HPWs, the unwanted TM polarized light is strongly attenuated while TE polarized light passes through with little loss. In addition, the multimode interference (MMI) effect is further utilized to strip out TM mode, resulting in more compact device size. To improve the extinction ratio (ER) and operating bandwidth (OBW) of the device, a three-stage cascaded scheme is utilized. Results show that a compact device with a length of ∼ 26 µ m , an ultra-high ER of over 60 dB, and a low insertion loss (IL) of 0.15 dB is obtained at the wavelength of 1.55 µm, with a broad OBW of over 240 nm for an E R &gt; --> 40 d B . Compared with the recently reported silicon TE-pass polarizers, the present device shows better performance in terms of ER and bandwidth with a comparable device footprint.

A 4-μm Diameter SPAD Using Less-Doped N-Well Guard Ring in Baseline 65-nm CMOS

This brief reports a small size single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) in baseline 65-nm CMOS suitable for low-cost time-of-flight application with high spatial resolution. By exploiting the less-doped n-well region to surround the vertical p-well/deep-n-well multiplication region, the electric field at the SPAD periphery can be reduced without process modifications while avoiding premature lateral breakdown. Validated using TCAD simulations, the fabricated 4- $\mu \text{m}$ diameter SPAD device exhibits a compact device size with a low dark count (73 cps/ $\mu \text{m}^{{{2}}}$ at 20 °C) and a high fill factor (17.7%) using 65-nm baseline CMOS, while demonstrating competitive performance when compared with the state of the art.

Acoustic Cell Separation Based on Density and Mechanical Properties.

Density and mechanical properties (e.g., compressibility or bulk modulus) are important cellular biophysical markers. As such, developing a method to separate cells directly based on these properties can benefit various applications including biological research, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutics. As a potential solution, surface acoustic wave (SAW)-based cell separation has demonstrated advantages in terms of biocompatibility and compact device size. However, most SAW-reliant cell separations are achieved using an entangled effect of density, various mechanical properties, and size. In this work, we demonstrate SAW-based separation of cells/particles based on their density and compressibility, irrespective of their sizes, by manipulating the acoustic properties of the fluidic medium. Using our platform, SAW-based separation is achieved by varying the dimensions of the microfluidic channels, the wavelengths of acoustic signals, and the properties of the fluid media. Our method was applied to separate paraformaldehyde-treated and fresh Hela cells based on differences in mechanical properties; a recovery rate of 85% for fixed cells was achieved. It was also applied to separate red blood cells (RBCs) and white blood cells (WBCs) which have different densities. A recovery rate of 80.5% for WBCs was achieved.

Three-Port Optical Phase-Shifters and Modulators With Ultra-High Modulation Efficiency, Positive RF-Linking Gain, and Low Residual Amplitude Modulation

A three-port optical phase-shifter and Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) based on PNP-type bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is demonstrated. Significant plasma (injected carrier) induced changes of the refractive index for the optical waveguide become possible with an extremely small driving-voltage and a compact device size during operation of this BJT between the saturation and forward active modes. Devices with a standard MZM structure and a small foot-print (0.5 mm) exhibit a moderate optical insertion loss (2 dB), extremely small V π (0.18V) and P π (0.21mW), fast rise/fall time (~1ns), and a residue-amplitudemodulation (RAM) as small as 0.18 dB. Furthermore, thanks to the ultra-high modulation efficiency characteristic of our device, a +4.0 dB net RF-linking gain can be obtained under dynamic operation. Compared to 2-port (base-collector) forward bias operation, under three-port operation, the extra bias current from the base-emitter junction provides a lower V π (0.18 vs. 0.22 V), a smaller RAM (0.18 vs. 0.6 dB), and a larger RF-linking gain (+4 vs. -3.2 dB). The superior performances of the three-port to two-port operations can be attributed to the additional forward bias B-E junction being able to provide more injected carriers to induce stronger plasma effects for optical phase-shifting.

Ultrashort hybrid plasmonic transverse electric pass polarizer for silicon-on-insulator platform

A design of a transverse electric (TE)-pass polarizer based on hybrid plasmonic silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform is reported and analyzed using full vectorial finite element method. The proposed design has gold nanorods that are injected into the silicon dioxide substrate to tolerate the function of the device, and hence the required polarizing state can be obtained. Detailed design principle is presented, taking advantage of the distinct confinements of the TE and transverse magnetic modes in the core region and their coupling with the surface plasmon modes around the metallic nanorods. According to the positions of the gold nanorods, the suggested plasmonic SOI can be used as a TE-pass polarizer with a compact device length of 1.85 μm with 0.1639 dB insertion losses and extinction ratio of 14.58 dB at wavelength of 1.55 μm. The optimized geometrical parameters offer 3 orders of magnitude smaller than similar devices previously demonstrated on the SOI platform. The proposed design has advantages in terms of simplicity and compactness, which makes it a good candidate to be used in integrated silicon photonics. Further, the compact device size and good performance could provide a simple yet satisfactory solution to the polarization-dependent performance drawback of the silicon photonics devices on the SOI platform.

Measurement of transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in cats with experimental skin barrier dysfunction using a closed chamber system.

A closed chamber evaporimeter is suitable for measuring transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in cats because of the compact device size, tolerance to sudden movement and short measuring time. TEWL is a representative parameter for skin barrier dysfunction, which is one of the clinical signs of atopic dermatitis in humans and dogs. Measurement of feline TEWL has been reported, but applicability of this parameter has not been validated. The aims of this study were to determine if tape stripping is a valid experimental model in cats for studying TEWL and to determine if a closed chambered system is a suitable measurement tool for cats. Ten clinically normal cats. In order to evaluate variation of the measured values, TEWL was measured at the right and left side of the three clipped regions (axillae, lateral thigh and groin). Subsequently, TEWL was measured using sequential tape stripping of the stratum corneum as a model of acute barrier disruption. The variations between both sides of the three regions showed no significant difference. Sequential tape stripping was associated with increasing values for TEWL. Feline TEWL was shown to reflect changes in the skin barrier in an experimental model using a closed chamber system and has the potential for evaluating skin barrier function in cats with skin diseases.

Investigation on an ultra-compact Mach–Zehnder interferometer electro-optic switch using poled-polymer/silicon slot waveguide

By using poled-polymer/silicon slot waveguides in the active region and employing the Pockels effect of the poled-polymer, we propose a kind of Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) electro-optic (EO) switch operated at 1550 nm. Dependencies of switching characteristics versus the slot waveguide parameters are investigated, including EO overlap integral, power ratio confined in the slot, and voltage-length product. Given the dimension of the silicon strip of 190 × 300 nm, as the slot width varies within 50–100 nm, the switching voltage can be as low as 1.0 V with only 0.17–0.35 mm active region length, and the whole device length is only about 770–950 μm. For the switch with 50 nm slot width, the insertion loss is about 4.42 dB under both operation states, and the crosstalk under cross-state and that under bar-state are about −48.2 and −65.3 dB, respectively. An impressive advantage of this switching structure lies that the voltage-length product (0.17–0.35 V mm) is at least 19–40 times smaller than that of the traditional polymer MZI EO switch (6.69 V mm). Compared with our previously reported two kinds of MZI or microring resonator assisted MZI EO switches, this switch does exhibit some superior characteristics, including low switching voltage, compact device size and small wavelength dependency, due to the use of slot waveguides in the MZI EO region.

Miniature optical fiber current sensor based on a graphene membrane

AbstractThe unique electronic and mechanical properties, of graphene make it an ideal material for nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) applications. Here, a miniature optical fiber current sensor based on a quasistatic graphene NEMS with a graphene membrane covering the hole on a pre‐etched fiber tip and two gold electrodes on opposite sides of the tip has been demonstrated. The sensor overcomes the shortcomings of conventional optical fiber current sensors based on thermal effects, such as relatively low sensitivity, long response time, and huge device size; it has simultaneously a high sensitivity of 2.2 × 105 nm/A2, a short response time of ∼0.25 s and a compact device size of ∼15 μm, and has found practical application. Using a smaller graphene membrane with better quality can reduce the response time to submillisecond levels with a more precise measurement system. The sensor presented in this paper may pave the way for the practical usage of optical fiber current sensors based on thermal effects. image

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer electro-optic switch with ultralow voltage-length product using poled-polymer/silicon slot waveguide

By using poled-polymer/silicon slot waveguides in the active region and the Pockels effect of the poled-polymer, we propose a kind of Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) electro-optic (EO) switch operated at 1 550 nm. Structural parameters are optimized for realizing normal switching function. Dependencies of switching characteristics on the slot waveguide parameters are investigated. For the silicon strip with dimension of 170 nm×300 nm, as the slot width varies from 50 nm to 100 nm, the switching voltage can be as low as 1.0 V with active region length of only 0.17–0.35 mm, and the length of the whole device is only about 770–950 μm. The voltage-length product of this switching structure is only 0.17–0.35 V·mm, and it is at least 19–40 times smaller than that of the traditional polymer MZI EO switch, which is 6.69 V·mm. Compared with our previously reported MZI EO switches, this switch exhibits some superior characteristics, including low switching voltage, compact device size and small wavelength dependency.

Non-resonant 2-D piezoelectric MEMS optical scanner actuated by Nb doped PZT thin film

This paper reports a non-resonant 2-D piezoelectric MEMS scanner actuated by a Nb doped PZT (PNZT) thin film for endoscopic optical coherence tomography (E-OCT) application. The unimorph actuator with the PNZT film shows more than twice as large displacement as that with a non-doped PZT films, and is suitable for large angle non-resonance scan, which was difficult for conventional non-resonant piezoelectric scanners. We designed a gimbal-less scanner with folded L-shape actuators enabling two-axis scan motion of a 1mm×1mm mirror within a compact device size of 2.2mm×2.7mm. The fabricated MEMS scanner with PNZT actuators showed an optical scan angle of 18.6° for both scan axes at a drive voltage of 40Vpp in non-resonance mode. This scan angle is more than 1.7 times larger than that of the scanner with PZT actuators, and is high enough to achieve a clinically useful scan area of 1mm×0.7mm at 3mm working distance in a side-imaging probe. The resonance frequency of the scanner was greater than 1.37kHz, which was sufficiently high for non-sinusoidal actuation up to 50Hz in OCT imaging. The scanner was driven by 25Hz triangle waves and 50Hz sawtooth waves through a low pass filter for linear OCT imaging at 50 lines per second.

Simultaneous multi-parameter measurement using Sagnac loop hybrid interferometer based on a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber with two asymmetric cores.

We have experimentally investigated the multi-parameter sensing characteristics in a novel all-fiber Sagnac loop hybrid interferometer based on a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber with two asymmetric cores. The sensor device was based on a combination of two types of in-fiber interferences, the intra-core-mode Sagnac interference and the inter-core-mode Mach-Zehnder interference due to the distinct birefringent properties associated with the asymmetric cores. Fast Fourier transform analysis on the transmission spectra of the device exhibited six clear peaks in the spatial frequency domain. By examining the phase shift responses of two distinct Sagnac and one Mach-Zehnder interference peaks, the response matrix that enable simultaneous measurement of torsion, strain, and temperature could be obtained. The proposed all-fiber Sagnac loop hybrid interferometer has the advantages such as simplicity of the device structure, compact device size, and capability for simultaneous sensing of multiple parameters.

Horizontal slot waveguides for polarization branching control

The capability of polarization branching control of silicon-on-insulator horizontal slot waveguide-based directional couplers (DCs) was investigated, and a highly efficient polarization beam splitter (PBS) and a polarization-independent DC (PIDC) were proposed by tailoring the ratio of the coupling lengths for quasi-TE and quasi-TM modes. Due to structural birefringence, the coupling effects of the quasi-TE and quasi-TM modes in the DC may vary with the waveguide geometry. Numerical simulations were conducted to obtain the optimal design parameters for high efficiency and compact device size by varying the aspect ratios and waveguide spacing. The coupling lengths of the designed PBS and PIDC are 65.87 μm and 6.93 μm, respectively. They deliver good performance with extinction ratios of ∼20 dB for PBS and 15 dB for PIDC. The PBS and PIDC are also broadband with a 1 dB bandwidth larger than 30 nm and 100 nm, respectively. The fabrication-error tolerance of the practical device is also discussed.

A Novel Point-of-Care BioNanoSensor for Rapid HIV Detection and Treatment Monitoring.

We report here a new diagnostic approach to the direct detection of HIV in blood or other body fluids that is rapid, sensitive and potentially applicable in a point-of-care setting. The approach follows on the development of a novel BioNanoSensor (BNS) device that utilizes piezoelectric technology to detect the presence of the HIV surface glycoprotein gp120 in a nanoscale format. The detection range of the BNS device for the biomarker gp120 displayed a low-end sensitivity of 6.5×104 HIV viral particles/ml, while using a small fluid sample (5 µl) and with a reaction time of less then 30 seconds. Performance of this device indicated that the BNS has utility for direct detection of HIV particles prior to, and independent from, antibody formation. Accordingly, this device holds utility to monitor the status of HIV infection both early after exposure to virus as well as during chronic HIV infection. The BNS parameters of small sample volume, compact device size, and detection sensitivity indicate that the BNS is potentially useful in the point-of-care and/or home setting for monitoring decisions regarding HIV treatment on a real-time basis.