• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 2009

The cochlea of the inner ear has two core components, basilar membrane and hair cells. The basilar membrane disperses incoming sound waves by their frequencies. The hair cells are on the basilar membrane, and they are the sensory receptors generating bioelectric signals. In this paper, a biomimetic technology using ZnO piezoelectric nano-pillar was studied as the part of developing process for artificial cochlea and novel artificial mechanosensory system mimicking human auditory senses. In particular, ZnO piezoelectric nano-pillar was fabricated by both low and high temperature growth methods. ZnO piezoelectric nano-pillars were grown on solid (high temperature growth) and flexible (low temperature growth) substrates. The substrates were patterned prior to ZnO nano-pillar growth so that we can selectively grow ZnO nano-pillar on the substrates. A multi-physical simulation was also conducted to understand the behavior of ZnO nano-pillar. The simulation results show electric potential, von Mises stress, and deformation in the ZnO nano-pillar. Both the experimental and computational works help characterize and optimize ZnO nano-pillar.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1419-1424
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• 2011

Nanoimprint lithography is a next generation lithography technology, which enables to fabricate nano to micron-scale patterns through simple and low cost process. Nanoimprint lithography has been applied in various industry fields such as light emitting diodes, solar cells and display. Functional patterns, including anti-reflection moth-eye pattern, photonic crystal pattern, fabricated by nanoimprint lithography are used to improve overall efficiency of devices in that fields. For these reasons, in this study, sub-micron-scaled functional patterns were directly fabricated on Si and glass substrates by thermal imprinting process using ZnO nano-particles dispersion resin. Through the thermal imprinting process, arrays of sub-micron-scaled pillar and hole patterns were successfully fabricated on the Si and glass substrates. And then, the topography, components and optical property of the imprinted ZnO nano-particles/resin patterns are characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope, Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and UV-vis spectrometer, respectively.