• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.8 s.227
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• pp.1135-1139
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• 2004

This paper presents a microextractor for the separation of DNA molecules by their sizes. The DNA microextractor immobilizes the DNA molecules of specific size in the micropillar array by adjusting the period of the crossed electric field, thus providing a starting-point independent target DNA extraction method without separation process monitoring. The DNA microextractor has been fabricated by a three-mask micromachining process. The velocity of three different DNA molecules has been measured at the electric field of E=5V/0.8cm in the fabricated DNA microextractor, resulting in the reorientation times of $4.80{\pm}0.44sec,\;7.12{\pm}0.75sec$, and $9.88{\pm}0.30sec$ for ${\lambda}$ DNA, micrococcus DNA, and T4 DNA, respectively. T4 DNA is trapped in the micropillar array when the crossed electric field of 5V/0.8cm is applied alternately at a 10 second time interval. The present DNA microextractor filters the DNA in a specific size range by adjusting the magnitude and/or the period of the crossed electric field applied in the micropillar array.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.50
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• pp.17.1-17.9
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• 2020

Recent advances in fabrication have enabled radial-junction architectures for cost-effective and high-performance optoelectronic devices. Unlike a planar PN junction, a radial-junction geometry maximizes the optical interaction in the three-dimensional (3D) structures, while effectively extracting the generated carriers via the conformal PN junction. In this paper, we report characterizations of radial PN junctions that consist of p-type Si micropillars created by deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) and an n-type layer formed by phosphorus gas diffusion. We use electron-beam induced current (EBIC) microscopy to access the 3D junction profile from the sidewall of the pillars. Our EBIC images reveal uniform PN junctions conformally constructed on the 3D pillar array. Based on Monte-Carlo simulations and EBIC modeling, we estimate local carrier separation/collection efficiency that reflects the quality of the PN junction. We find the EBIC efficiency of the pillar array increases with the incident electron beam energy, consistent with the EBIC behaviors observed in a high-quality planar PN junction. The magnitude of the EBIC efficiency of our pillar array is about 70% at 10 kV, slightly lower than that of the planar device (≈ 81%). We suggest that this reduction could be attributed to the unpassivated pillar surface and the unintended recombination centers in the pillar cores introduced during the DRIE processes. Our results support that the depth-dependent EBIC approach is ideally suitable for evaluating PN junctions formed on micro/nanostructured semiconductors with various geometry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

In the present study, copper micromolds with a microhole array were precisely manufactured by a synchrotron LIGA process. Like in the traditional LIGA process, a deep X-ray lithography based on a synchrotron radiation was employed as the first manufacturing step. Due to the excellent optical performance of the synchrotron X-ray used, cylindrical micropillar arrays with high aspect ratio could be efficiently obtained. The fabricated microfeatures were then used as a master of the subsequent copper electroforming process, thereby resulting in copper micromolds with a microhole array. Thermoplastic hot embossing experiments with the copper micromolds were carried out for imprinting cylindrical microfeatures onto a polystyrene sheet. Through the hot embossing, the effect of embossing temperature and usefulness of the present manufacturing method could be verified.