Suspended nanostructured alumina membranes.

Suspended thin membranes have drawn increased attention due to their exceptional thermal properties. The membranes presented here are made of alumina (Al(2)O(3)), which offers several advantages over the traditional silicon nitride membranes. Alumina films are atomic layer deposited (ALD), which enables conformal deposition profiles at low deposition temperatures.

Capillary liquid chromatography-microchip atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry.

A miniaturized nebulizer chip for capillary liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (capillary LC-microchip APCI-MS) is presented. The APCI chip consists of two wafers, a silicon wafer and a Pyrex glass wafer. The silicon wafer has a DRIE etched through-wafer nebulizer gas inlet, an edge capillary insertion channel, a stopper, a vaporizer channel and a nozzle.

Gas chromatography-microchip atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry.

An atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) microchip is presented for combining a gas chromatograph (GC) to a mass spectrometer (MS). The chip includes capillary insertion channel, stopper, vaporizer channel, nozzle and nebulizer gas inlet fabricated on the silicon wafer, and a platinum heater sputtered on a glass wafer. These two wafers are joined by anodic bonding creating a two-dimensional version of an APCI microchip.