Dynamic characterization of human breast cancer cells using a piezoresistive microcantilever.

In this paper, frequency response (dynamic compression and recovery) is suggested as a new physical marker to differentiate between breast cancer cells (MCF7) and normal cells (MCF10A). A single cell is placed on the laminated piezoelectric actuator and a piezoresistive microcantilever is placed on the upper surface of the cell at a specified preload displacement (or an equivalent force). The piezoelectric actuator excites the single cell in a sinusoidal fashion and its dynamic deformation is then evaluated from the displacement converted by measuring the voltage output through a piezoresistor in the microcantilever.

Design and fabrication of a microlens on the sidewall of an optical fiber with a metallized 45 degrees end face.

We propose a method for designing a self-aligned microlens. We have improved its fabrication by employing metallization on a 45 degrees angled surface of the optical fiber. We designed the focal length of the microlens to be 14.

Optical characteristics of a refractive optical attenuator with respect to the wedge angles of a silicon optical leaker.

We design, fabricate, and characterize the micromachined refractive variable optical attenuator (VOA) with a wedge-shaped silicon optical leaker (SOL). The vertical structures of the VOA device can be simply fabricated by deep reactive ion etching with no sidewall metallization, and the 8 degrees angled fibers are employed for a high return loss even in air-ambient conditions. The SOL successively transmits and refracts part of the incident light far outside the acceptance angle of the output fiber, showing an effective optical attenuation.