• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2364-2370
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• 2021

The ⁿMCP (Neutron sensitive microchannel plate) combined with advanced readout electronics is widely used in energy selective neutron imaging because of its good spatial and timing resolution. Neutron detection efficiency is a crucial parameter for the ⁿMCP. In this paper, a mathematical model based on the oblique cylindrical channel and elliptical pore was established to calculate the neutron absorption probability, the escape probability of charged particles and overall detection efficiency of ⁿMCP and analyze the effects of neutron incident position, pore diameter, wall thickness and bias angle. It was shown that when the doping concentration of the ⁿMCP was 10 mol%, the thickness of ⁿMCP was 0.6 mm, the detection efficiency could reach maximum value, about 24% for thermal neutrons if the pore diameter was 6 ㎛, the wall thickness was 2 ㎛ and the bias angle was 3 or 6°. The calculated results are of great significance for evaluating the detection efficiency of the ⁿMCP. In a subsequent companion paper, the mathematical model would be extended to the case of the spatial resolution and detection efficiency optimization of the coating ⁿMCP.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.198-204
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• 2019

In this study, we propose a wearable force sensor using 3D printed mold and liquid metal. Liquid metal, such as Galinstan, is one of the promising functional materials in stretchable electronics known for its intrinsic mechanical and electronic properties. The proposed soft force sensor measures the external force by the resistance change caused by the cross-sectional area change. Fused deposition modeling-based 3D printing is a simple and cost-effective fabrication of resilient elastomers using liquid metal. Using a 3D printed microchannel mold, 3D multichannel Galinstan microchannels were fabricated with a serpentine structure for signal stability because it is important to maintain the sensitivity of the sensor even in various mechanical deformations. We performed various electro-mechanical tests for performance characterization and verified the signal stability while stretching and bending. The proposed sensor exhibited good signal stability under 100% longitudinal strain, and the resistance change ranged within 5% of the initial value. We attached the proposed sensor on the finger joint and evaluated the signal change during various finger movements and the application of external forces.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.639-643
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• 2021

In this study, fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) nanoparticle as an adhesive for fabricating a three-dimensional multilayered microfluidic device was studied. The formation of evenly distributed FEP nanoparticles layer with 3 ㎛ in thickness on substrates was achieved by simple spin coating of FEP dispersion solution at 1500 rpm for 30 s. It is confirmed that FEP nanoparticles transformed into a hydrophobic thin film after thermal treatment at 300 ℃ for 1 hour, and fabricated polyimide film-based microfluidic device using FEP nanoparticle was endured pressure up to 2250 psi. Finally, a three-dimensional multilayered microfluidic device composed of 16 microreactors, which are difficult to fabricate with conventional photolithography, was successfully realized by simple one-step alignment of FEP coated nine polyimide films. The developed three-dimensional multilayered microfluidic device has the potential to be a powerful tool such as high-throughput screening, mass production, parallelization, and large-scale microfluidic integration for various applications in chemistry and biology.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2022

Micro-LED is a light-emitting diode smaller than 100 ㎛ in size. It attracts much attention due to its superior performance, such as resolution, brightness, etc., and is considered for various applications like flexible display and VR/AR. Micro-LED display requires a mass transfer process to move micro-LED chips from a LED wafer to a target substrate. In this study, we proposed a vacuum chuck method as a mass transfer technique. The vacuum chuck was fabricated with MEMS technology and PDMS micro-mold process. The spin-coating approach using a dam structure successfully controlled the PDMS mold's thickness. The vacuum test using solder balls instead of micro-LED confirmed the vacuum chuck method as a mass transfer technique.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.283-288
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• 2019

Monodisperse microparticles has been particularly enabling for various applications in the encapsulation and delivery of pharmaceutical agents. The microfluidic devices are attractive candidates to produce highly uniform droplets that serve as templates to form monodisperse microparticles. The microfluidic devices that have micro-scale channel allow precise control of the balance between surface tension and viscous forces in two-phase flows. One of its essential abilities is to generate highly monodisperse droplets. In this paper, a microfluidic approach for preparing monodisperse polycaprolactone (PCL) microparticles is presented. The microfluidic devices that have a flow-focusing generator are manufactured by soft-lithography using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The crucial factors in the droplet generation are the controllability of size and monodispersity of the microdroplets. For this, the volumetric flow rates of the dispersed phase of oil solution and the continuous phase of water to generate monodisperse droplets are optimized. As a result, the optimal flow condition for droplet dripping region that is able to generate uniform droplet is found. Furthermore, the droplets containing PCL polymer by solvent evaporation after collection of droplet from device is solidified to generate the microparticle. The particle size can be controlled by tuning the flow rate and the size of the microchannel. The monodispersity of the PCL particles is measured by a coefficient of variation (CV) below 5%.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.325-330
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• 2006

This study presents the characterization of an integrated portable microfluidic electrical detection system for fast and low volume immunoassay using polystyrene microbead, which are used as immobilization surfaces. In our chip, a filtration method using the microbead was adopted for sample immobilization and immunogold silver staining(IGSS) was used to increase the electrical signal. The chip is composed of an inexpensive and biocompatible Polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS) layer and Pyrex glass substrate. Platinum microelectrodes for electric signal detection were fabricated on the substrate and microchannel and pillar-type microfilters were formed in the PDMS layer. With a fabricated chip, we reacted antigen and antibody according to the procedures. Then, silver enhancer was injected to increase the size of nanogold particles tagged with the second antibody. As a result, microbeads were connected to each other and formed an electrical bridge between microelectrodes. Resistance measured through the electrodes showed a difference of two orders of magnitude between specific and nonspecific immuno-reactions. The detection limit was 10 ng/ml. The developed immunoassay chip reduced the total analysis time from 3 hours to 50 min. Fast and low-volume biochemical analysis has been successfully achieved with the developed microfilter and immuno-sensor chip, which is integrated to the microfluidic system.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2009

The prediction of pressure drop for a droplet flow in a confined micro channel is presented using FE-FTM (Finite Element - Front Tracking Method). A single droplet is passing through 5:1:5 contraction - straight narrow channel - expansion flow domain. The pressure drop is investigated especially when the droplet flows in the straight narrow channel. We explore the effects of droplet size, capillary number (Ca), viscosity ratio ($\chi$) between droplet and medium, and fluid elasticity represented by the Oldroyd-B constitutive model on the excess pressure drop (${\Delta}p^+$) against single phase flow. The tightly fitted droplets in the narrow channel are mainly considered in the range of $0.001{\leq}Ca{\leq}1$ and $0.01{\leq}{\chi}{\leq}100$. In Newtonian droplet/Newtonian medium, two characteristic features are observed. First, an approximate relation ${\Delta}p^+{\sim}{\chi}$ observed for ${\chi}{\geq}1$. The excess pressure drop necessary for droplet flow is roughly proportional to $\chi$. Second, ${\Delta}p^+$ seems inversely proportional to Ca, which is represented as ${\Delta}p^+{\sim}Ca^m$ with negative m irrespective of $\chi$. In addition, we observe that the film thickness (${\delta}_f$) between droplet interface and channel wall decreases with decreasing Ca, showing ${\delta}_f{\sim}Ca^n$ Can with positive n independent of $\chi$. Consequently, the excess pressure drop (${\Delta}p^+$) is strongly dependent on the film thickness (${\delta}_f$). The droplets larger than the channel width show enhancement of ${\Delta}p^+$, whereas the smaller droplets show no significant change in ${\Delta}p^+$. Also, the droplet deformation in the narrow channel is affected by the flow history of the contraction flow at the entrance region, but rather surprisingly ${\Delta}p^+$ is not affected by this flow history. Instead, ${\Delta}p^+$ is more dependent on ${\delta}_f$ irrespective of the droplet shape. As for the effect of fluid elasticity, an increase in ${\delta}_f$ induced by the normal stress difference in viscoelastic medium results in a drastic reduction of ${\Delta}p^+$.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.513-519
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• 2006

We developed two kinds of the microchip for application to electrophoresis based on both glass and quartz employing the MEMS fabrications. The poly-Si layer deposited onto the bonding interface apart from channel regions can play a role as the optical slit cutting off the stray light in order to concentrate the UV ray, from which it is possible to improve the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the detection on a chip. In the glass chip, the deposited poly-Si layer had an important function of the etch mask and provided the bonding surface properly enabling the anodic bonding. The glass wafer including more impurities than quartz one results in the higher surface roughness of the channel wall, which affects subsequently on the microflow behavior of the sample solutions. In order to solve this problem, we prepared here the mixed etchant consisting HF and $NH_4F$ solutions, by which the surface roughness was reduced. Both the shape and the dimension of each channel were observed, and the electroosmotic flow velocities were measured as 0.5 mm/s for quartz and 0.36 mm/s for glass channel by implementing the microchip electrophoresis. Applying the optical slit with poly-Si layer provides that the S/N ratio of the peak is increased as ca. 2 times for quartz chip and ca. 3 times for glass chip. The maximum UV absorbance is also enhanced with ca. 1.6 and 1.7 times, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.227-236
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• 2016

In the present experimental study, the effect of gas- and liquid-injected methods on the formation of bubble and liquid slug at the merging micro T-junction of a square microchannel with dimensions $600{\mu}m{\times}600{\mu}m$ was investigated. Nitrogen and water were used as test fluids. The superficial velocities of the liquid and gas were in the range of 0.05 - 1 m/s, and 0.1 - 1 m/s, respectively, where the Taylor flow was observed. The bubble length, liquid slug length, bubble velocity, and bubble generation frequency were measured by analyzing the images captured using a high-speed camera. Under similar inlet superficial velocity conditions, in the case of gas injection to the main channel at the merging T-junction (T_gas-liquid), the lengths of the bubble and liquid slug were longer, and the bubble generation frequency was lower than in the case of liquid injection to the main channel at the merging T-junction (T_liquid-gas). On the other hand, in both cases, the bubble velocity was almost the same. The previous correlation proposed using experimental data for T_liquid-gas had predicted the present experimental data of bubble length, bubble velocity, liquid slug length, and bubble generation frequency for T_gas-liquid to be ~24%, ~9%, ~39%, ~55%, respectively.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.149-158
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• 2005

This paper describes design, fabrication, and application of the silicon based temperature controllable micro reactor. In order to achieve fast temperature variation and low energy consumption, reaction chamber of the micro reactor was thermally isolated by etching the highly conductive silicon around the reaction chamber. Compared with the model not having thermally isolated structure, the thermally isolated micro reactor showed enhanced thermal performances such as fast temperature variation and low energy consumption. The performance enhancements of the micro reactor due to etched holes were verified by thermal experiment and numerical analysis. Regarding to 42 percents reduction of the thermal mass achieved by the etched holes, approximately 4 times faster thermal variation and 5 times smaller energy consumption were acquired. The total size of the fabricated micro reactor was $37{\times}30{\times}1mm^{3}$. Microchannel and reaction chamber were formed on the silicon substrate. The openings of channel and chamber were covered by the glass substrate. The Pt electrodes for heater and sensor are fabricated on the backside of silicon substrate below the reaction chamber. The dimension of channel cross section was $200{\times}100{\mu}m^{2}$. The volume of reaction chamber was $4{\mu}l$. The temperature of the micro reactor was controlled and measured simultaneously with NI DAQ PCI-MIO-16E-l board and LabVIEW program. Finally, the fabricated micro reactor and the temperature control system were applied to the thermal denaturation and the trypsin digestion of protein. BSA(bovine serum albumin) was chosen for the test sample. It was successfully shown that BSA was successfully denatured at $75^{\circ}C$ for 1 min and digested by trypsin at $37^{\circ}C$ for 10 min.