Microsystems & Nanoengineering最新文献

{"title":"Anti-aliasing multi-bit sigma-delta modulated cobweb-like disk resonator gyroscope with extending input range.","authors":"Bo Fan, Shihao Du, Jingchuan Zhou, Zhenghao Lu, Dacheng Xu, Shuwen Guo, Yuyu Tan, Fang Chen","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00919-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-025-00919-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A novel cobweb-like disk resonator gyroscope (CDRG) is introduced in this paper, which integrates a multi-bit electro-mechanical sigma-delta modulation (ΣΔΜ) system to significantly expand the input angular rate signal range, improving performance metrics like signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and noise reduction. This design seeks to overcome the limitations associated with single-bit ΣΔΜ gyroscope systems by incorporating a linear multi-bit force feedback mechanism that utilizes nonlinear actuators driven by pulse density modulation. The proposed gyroscope system effectively broadens the input range without necessitating higher actuation voltages. In the absence of electronic trimming, experimental findings indicate significant enhancements in performance metrics: the input range, angle random walk, and bias instability improved by 30%, 106.2%, and 487.9%, respectively, when compared to traditional ΣΔΜ CDRG system configurations.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"66"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12012175/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144029364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Extracellular vesicle-based point-of-care testing for diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease.","authors":"Xiang Li, Jie Chen, Yang Yang, Hongwei Cai, Zheng Ao, Yantao Xing, Kangle Li, Kaiyuan Yang, Weihua Guan, James Friend, Luke P Lee, Nian Wang, Feng Guo","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00916-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-025-00916-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Extracellular vesicles (EVs) show potential for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and monitoring of its progression. However, EV-based AD diagnosis faces challenges due to the small size and low abundance of biomarkers. Here, we report a fully integrated organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) sensor for ultrafast, accurate, and convenient point-of-care testing (POCT) of serum EVs from AD patients. By utilizing acoustoelectric enrichment, the EVs can be quickly propelled, significantly enriched, and specifically bound to the OECT detection area, achieving a gain of over 280 times response in 30 s. The integrated POCT sensor can detect serum EVs from AD patients with a limit of detection as low as 500 EV particles/mL and a reduced detection time of just two minutes. Furthermore, the integrated POCT sensors were used to monitor AD progression in an AD mouse model by testing the mouse Aβ EVs at different time courses (up to 18 months) and compared with the Aβ accumulation using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This innovative technology has the potential for accurate and rapid diagnosis of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, and monitoring of disease progression and treatment response.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"65"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12006457/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144018738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A MEMS electro-mechanical co-optimization platform featuring freeform geometry optimization based on a genetic algorithm.","authors":"Chen Wang, Xinyu Wu, Sina Sadeghpour, Milad Shojaeian, Linlin Wang, Bernardo Pereira Madeira, Yangyang Guan, Huafeng Liu, Yuan Wang, Pan Zhang, Pui-In Mak","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00910-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-025-00910-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper describes a novel, system-level design methodology based on a genetic algorithm (GA) using freeform geometries for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. The proposed method can concurrently design and co-optimize the electronic and mechanical parts of a MEMS device comprising freeform geometries to achieve a better system performance, i.e., a high sensitivity, a good system stability, and large fabrication tolerances. Also, the introduction of freeform geometries allows higher degrees of freedom in the design process, improving the diversity and potentially the performance of the MEMS devices. A MEMS accelerometer comprising a freeform mechanical motion preamplifier in a closed-loop control system is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the design approach. The optimization process shows the main figure-of-merit (FOM) is improved by 195%. In the mechanical component alone (open-loop system), the product of sensitivity and bandwidth has improved by 151%, with sensitivity increasing by 276%. For closed-loop performance, there is an improvement of 120% for the ratio of open and closed-loop displacements. The product of sensitivity and bandwidth is improved by 27% in the closed-loop system. Excellent immunities to fabrication errors and parameter mismatch are achieved. Experiments show that the displacement of the MEMS accelerometer in the closed-loop system decreased by 86% with 4.85 V feedback voltage compared with that in the open-loop system under a 1 g 100 Hz acceleration input. The static and dynamic nonlinearities in the closed-loop system are improved by 64% and 61%, respectively, compared with those in the open-loop system, in the ±1 g acceleration input range. Besides, the closed-loop system improves the cross-axis sensitivity by 18.43%, compared with that in the open-loop system. It is the first time a closed-loop system for a MEMS accelerometer comprising a mechanical motion preamplifier is successfully implemented experimentally.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"64"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12003626/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143972209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Electrochemical microfluidic biosensor for the detection of CD4⁺ T cells.","authors":"Katarzyna Białas, Hui Min Tay, Chayakorn Petchakup, Razieh Salimian, Stephen G Ward, Mark A Lindsay, Han Wei Hou, Pedro Estrela","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00893-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-025-00893-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since the onset of the HIV epidemic, assessing CD4⁺ T-cells has become a routine procedure for evaluating immune deficiency, with flow cytometry established as the gold standard. Over time, various strategies and platforms have been introduced to improve CD4⁺ cell enumeration, aiming to enhance the performance of diagnostic devices and bring the service closer to patients. These advancements are particularly critical for low-resource settings and point-of-care applications, where the excellent performance of flow cytometry is hindered by its unsuitability in such environments. This work presents an innovative electrochemical microfluidic device that, with further development, could be applied for HIV management in low resource settings. The setup integrates an electrochemical sensor within a PDMS microfluidic structure, allowing for on-chip electrode functionalization and cell detection. Using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, the biosensor demonstrates a linear detection range from 1.25 × 10⁵ to 2 × 10⁶ cells/mL, with a detection limit of 1.41 × 10⁵ cells/mL for CD4⁺ cells isolated from blood samples, aligning with clinical ranges for both healthy and HIV⁺ patients. The biosensor shows specificity towards CD4⁺ cells with negligible response to monocytes, neutrophils, and bovine serum albumin. Its integration with a microfluidic chip for sensor fabrication and cell detection, compact size, minimal manual handling, ease of fabrication, electrochemical detection capability, and potential for multiplexing together with the detection range make the device particularly advantageous for use in low-resource settings, standing out among other devices described in the literature. This study also investigates the integration of a microfluidic Dean Flow Fractionation (DFF) chip for cell separation.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"63"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11982565/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144018694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contactless Braille sensing based on GaN optical devices integrated with epoxy lenses.","authors":"Hongyu Cheng, Jiahao Yin, Sirui Li, Kwai Hei Li","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00904-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41378-025-00904-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Braille serves as an efficient means for visually impaired individuals to access textual information and engage in communication. However, the process of reading Braille can often be cumbersome and time-intensive, particularly in bidirectional human-machine interaction. In this work, a compact optical device for contactless detection of Braille is fabricated and characterized. The GaN-on-sapphire chip, which employs monolithic integration, serves as the core for both light emission and photodetection, significantly reducing its overall footprint. The incorporation of the semi-ellipsoid epoxy lens with optimized dimensions ensures consistent and accurate detection. The sensing device demonstrates high stability and fast response through its line-scanning capabilities on Braille codes. The captured signals are analyzed using a microcontroller, and the Braille recognition results are wirelessly transmitted to a portable mobile device, enabling the conversion into audio and visual formats. This innovative design not only facilitates Braille reading but also holds the potential to advance human-machine interaction.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"62"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11978887/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143812058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Low-cost optical sensors in electrified lab-on-a-disc platforms: liquid-phase boundary detection and automated diagnostics.","authors":"Vahid Kordzadeh-Kermani, Maryam Vahid, Seyed Nezameddin Ashrafizadeh, Sergio O Martinez-Chapa, Marc J Madou, Masoud Madadelahi","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00896-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41378-025-00896-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Centrifugal microfluidic platforms are highly regarded for their potential in multiplexing and automation, as well as their wide range of applications, especially in separating blood plasma and manipulating two-phase flows. However, the need to use stroboscopes or high-speed cameras for monitoring these tasks hinders the extensive use of these platforms in research and commercial settings. In this study, we introduce an innovative and cost-effective strategy for using an array of light-dependent resistors (LDRs) as optical sensors in microfluidic devices, particularly centrifugal platforms. While LDRs are attractive for their potential use as photodetectors, their bulky size frequently restricts their ability to provide high-resolution detection in microfluidic systems. Here, we use specific waveguides to direct light beams from narrow apertures onto the surface of LDRs. We integrated these LDRs into electrified Lab-on-a-Disc (eLOD) devices, with wireless connectivity to smartphones and laptops. This enables many applications, such as droplet/particle counting and velocity measurement, concentration analysis, fluidic interface detection in multiphase flows, real-time monitoring of sample volume on centrifugal platforms, and detection of blood plasma separation as an alternative to costly stroboscope devices, microscopes, and high-speed imaging. We used numerical simulations to evaluate various fluids and scenarios, which include rotation speeds of up to 50 rad/s and a range of droplet sizes. For the testbed, we used the developed eLOD device to analyze red blood cell (RBC) deformability and improve the automated detection of sickle cell anemia by monitoring differences in RBC deformability during centrifugation using the sensors' signals. In addition to sickle cell anemia, this device has the potential to facilitate low-cost automated detection of other medical conditions characterized by altered RBC deformability, such as thalassemia, malaria, and diabetes.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"61"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11977271/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143803542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microfluidic contact lens: fabrication approaches and applications.","authors":"Aravind M, Ankur Saxena, Dhaneshwar Mishra, Kulwant Singh, Sajan D George","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00909-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41378-025-00909-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microfluidic contact lenses integrate microscale features that can efficiently and precisely manipulate, interact, and analyze the small volumes of tears available in the limited accessible space for the lens in the eye. The microfluidic network on contact lenses allows the miniaturization of biochemical operations on the wealth of physiological information available in the eye. Sensors integrated into channels enable real-time monitoring of ocular parameters, including glucose, pH, electrolytes, or other biomarkers. Additionally, microchannel-integrated contact lenses have demonstrated potential as power-free, continuous intraocular pressure monitoring platforms for the effective management of glaucoma. Furthermore, the controlled release of medications directly onto the eye from microfluidic contact lenses enhances therapeutic efficacy by increasing bioavailability. Despite current challenges such as scalable fabrication techniques, microfluidic contact lenses hold immense promise for ocular health, bridging the gap between diagnostics and treatment. This review summarizes the progress made in the design and fabrication of microfluidic contact lenses, with a special emphasis on the methods adopted to fabricate microfluidic contact lenses. Furthermore, the various applications of microfluidic contact lenses, ocular disease diagnosis, and drug delivery in particular are discussed in detail. Aside from outlining the state-of-the-art research activities in this area, challenges and future directions are discussed here.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"59"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11968888/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143780469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Surface-enhanced spectroscopy technology based on metamaterials.","authors":"Dongxiao Li, Xueyuan Wu, Ziwei Chen, Tao Liu, Xiaojing Mu","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00905-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41378-025-00905-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Surface-enhanced spectroscopy technology based on metamaterials has flourished in recent years, and the use of artificially designed subwavelength structures can effectively regulate light waves and electromagnetic fields, making it a valuable platform for sensing applications. With the continuous improvement of theory, several effective universal modes of metamaterials have gradually formed, including localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), Mie resonance, bound states in the continuum (BIC), and Fano resonance. This review begins by summarizing these core resonance mechanisms, followed by a comprehensive overview of six main surface-enhanced spectroscopy techniques across the electromagnetic spectrum: surface-enhanced fluorescence (SEF), surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA), terahertz (THz) sensing, refractive index (RI) sensing, and chiral sensing. These techniques cover a wide spectral range and address various optical characteristics, enabling the detection of molecular fingerprints, structural chirality, and refractive index changes. Additionally, this review summarized the combined use of different enhanced spectra, the integration with other advanced technologies, and the status of miniaturized metamaterial systems. Finally, we assess current challenges and future directions. Looking to the future, we anticipate that metamaterial-based surface-enhanced spectroscopy will play a transformative role in real-time, on-site detection across scientific, environmental, and biomedical fields.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"60"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11969004/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143780481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ultra-low-crosstalk silicon switches driven thermally and electrically.","authors":"Peng Bao, Chunhui Yao, Chenxi Tan, Alan Yilun Yuan, Minjia Chen, Seb J Savory, Richard Penty, Qixiang Cheng","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00911-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41378-025-00911-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Silicon photonic switches are widely considered as a cost-effective solution for addressing the ever-growing data traffic in datacenter networks, as they offer unique advantages such as low power consumption, low latency, small footprint and high bandwidth. Despite extensive research efforts, crosstalk in large-scale photonic circuits still poses a threat to signal integrity. In this paper, we present two designs of silicon Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) switches achieving ultra-low-crosstalk, driven thermally and electrically. Each switch fabric is optimized at both the device and circuit level to suppress crosstalk and reduce system complexity. Notably, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, we harness the inherent self-heating effect in a carrier-injection-based MZI switch to create a pair of phase shifters that offers arbitrary phase differences. Such a pair of phase shifters induces matched insertion loss at each arm, thus minimizing crosstalk. Experimentally, an ultra-low crosstalk ratio below -40 dB is demonstrated for both thermo-optic (T-O) and electro-optic (E-O) switches. The T-O switch exhibits an on-chip loss of less than 5 dB with a switching time of 500 µs, whereas the E-O switch achieves an on-chip loss as low as 8.5 dB with a switching time of under 100 ns. In addition, data transmission of a 50 Gb/s on-off keying signal is demonstrated with high fidelity on the E-O switch, showing the great potential of the proposed switch designs.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"58"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11968887/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143780498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Virtually coupled resonators with modal dominance for improved sensitivity and bandwidth.","authors":"Zhao Zhang, Han Li, Cheng Hou, Yongcun Hao, Hemin Zhang, Honglong Chang","doi":"10.1038/s41378-025-00897-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41378-025-00897-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mode-localized sensors have attracted significant attention due to their exceptional sensitivity and inherent ability to reject common-mode noise. This high sensitivity arises from the substantial shifts in resonator amplitudes induced by energy confinement in weakly coupled resonators. Despite their promising attributes, there has been limited research on the mechanisms of energy confinement. This paper presents both qualitative and quantitative analyses of energy confinement within weakly coupled resonators and concludes them as the concept of modal dominance. This concept elucidates that mode frequencies are predominantly dictated by the natural frequencies of the internal resonators, facilitating spatial energy confinement. Based on this modal dominance, a novel concept of virtually coupled resonators is proposed, which obviates the need for physical coupling structures. Instead, energy confinement is achieved through a frequency offset between two independent resonators, resulting in a similar amplitude ratio output and enhanced sensitivity. To further enhance performance, a double-closed-loop control scheme is developed for virtually coupled resonators, expanding the bandwidth in comparison to weakly coupled resonators. Experimental results validate the feasibility of virtually coupled resonators and the double-closed-loop control, demonstrating a 2.7-fold improvement in amplitude ratio sensitivity and at least a four-fold enhancement in bandwidth relative to weakly coupled resonators with identical parameters.</p>","PeriodicalId":18560,"journal":{"name":"Microsystems & Nanoengineering","volume":"11 1","pages":"57"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11968953/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143780502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}