Thick waveguides of low-stress stoichiometric silicon nitride on sapphire (SiNOS).

Low-stress stoichiometric silicon nitride (SiN) waveguides with an unprecedented thickness of up to 1350 nm and a width in the range of 2.2 - 2.7 µm are fabricated using a single LPCVD step on sapphire substrates (SiNOS).

Periodic Arrays of Plasmonic Ag-Coated Multiscale 3D-Structures with SERS Activity: Fabrication, Modelling and Characterisation.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is gaining importance as sensing tool. However, wide application of the SERS technique suffers mainly from limitations in terms of uniformity of the plasmonics structures and sensitivity for low concentrations of target analytes. In this work, we present SERS specimens based on periodic arrays of 3D-structures coated with silver, fabricated by silicon top-down micro and nanofabrication (10 mm × 10 mm footprint).

3D topographies promote macrophage M2d-Subset differentiation.

cellular models denote a crucial part of drug discovery programs as they aid in identifying successful drug candidates based on their initial efficacy and potency. While tremendous headway has been achieved in improving 2D and 3D culture techniques, there is still a need for physiologically relevant systems that can mimic or alter cellular responses without the addition of external biochemical stimuli. A way forward to alter cellular responses is using physical cues, like 3D topographical inorganic substrates, to differentiate macrophage-like cells.

Self-Aligned Crystallographic Multiplication of Nanoscale Silicon Wedges for High-Density Fabrication of 3D Nanodevices.

High-density arrays of silicon wedges bound by {111} planes on silicon (100) wafers have been created by combining convex corner lithography on a silicon dioxide hard mask with anisotropic, crystallographic etching in a repetitive, self-aligned multiplication procedure. A mean pitch of around 30 nm has been achieved, based on an initial pitch of ∼120 nm obtained through displacement Talbot lithography. The typical resolution of the convex corner lithography was reduced to the sub-10 nm range by employing an 8 nm silicon dioxide mask layer (measured on the {111} planes).