Search Results (13)

The metal bipolar plate is a critical component of the hydrogen fuel cell stack used in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Bipolar plates must have high accuracy micro-channels with a high aspect ratio (AR) between the channel depth and the half periodic width to achieve optimal cell performance. Conventional forming methods, such as micro-stamping, hydroforming, and rubber pad forming, cannot achieve these high ARs given that in these processes, material deformation is dominated by stretch deformation. In micro-roll forming the major deformation mode is bending, and this enables production of channels with higher ARs than is currently possible. However, micro-roll forming uses multiple sets of forming roll stands to form the part and this leads to technological challenges related to tool alignment and roll tool precision that must be overcome before widespread application can be achieved. This study presents a new methodology to achieve tight tool tolerances when producing micro-roll tooling by utilizing wire-EDM and micro-turning techniques. This is combined with a new micro-roll former design that enables high-precision tool alignment across multiple roll stations. Proof of concept is provided through micro-roll forming trials performed on ultra-thin titanium sheets that show that the proposed technology can achieve tight dimensional tolerances in the sub-millimeter scale that suits bipolar plate applications. Full article

Currently, the field of microgear manufacturing faces various processing challenges, particularly in terms of size reduction; these challenges increase the complexity and costs of manufacturing. In this study, a technique for microgear manufacturing is aimed at reducing subsequent processing steps and enhancing material utilization. This technique involves the use of trough dies with extrusion-cutting processing, which enables workpieces to undergo forming in a negative clearance state, thus reducing subsequent processing time for micro products. We conducted finite element simulations using microgear dies, measuring stress, velocity, and flow during the forming process of four types of dies-flat, internal-trough, external-trough, and double-trough dies. The results indicated that the buffering effect of the troughs reduced the rate of increase in the material’s internal stress. In the cavity, the material experiences a significant increase in hydrostatic pressure, leading to the formation of a “hydrostatic pressure wall”. This pressure barrier imposes substantial constraints on the flow of the material during dynamic processes, making it difficult for the material to move into the remaining areas. This effectively enhances the blockage of material flow, demonstrating the critical role of hydrostatic pressure in controlling material distribution and movement. In addition, combining the characteristics of both into a double-trough die enhances the overall stability of forming velocity, reduces forming load and energy consumption, and maximizes material utilization. Results further revealed that microgears manufactured using double-trough dies exhibited defect-free surfaces, with a dimensional error of less than 5 μm and tolerances ranging from IT5 to IT6. Overall, this study offers new insights into the traditional field of microgear manufacturing, highlighting potential solutions for the challenges encountered in current microstamping processes. Full article

A review of studies on the electroplastic effect on the deformation process in various conductive materials and alloys for the last decade has been carried out. Aspects, such as the mode and regimes of electric current, the practical methods of its introduction into materials with different deformation schemes, features of deformation behavior accompanied by a pulsed current of different materials, structural changes caused by the combined action of deformation and current, the influence of structural features on the electroplastic effect, changes in the physical, mechanical, and technological properties of materials subjected to plastic deformation under current, possible mechanisms and methods of physical and computer modeling of the electroplastic effect, and potential and practical applications of the electroplastic effect are considered. The growing research interest in the manifestation of the electroplastic effect in such new modern materials as shape-memory alloys and ultrafine-grained and nanostructured alloys is shown. Various methods of modeling the mechanisms of electroplasticity, especially at the microlevel, are becoming the most realistic approach for the prediction of the deformation behavior and physical and mechanical properties of various materials. Original examples of the practical application of electropulse methods in the processes of drawing, microstamping, and others are given. Full article

Microscale elastomeric valves are an integral part of many lab-on-chip applications. Normally closed valves require lower actuation pressures to form tight seals, making them ideal for portable devices. However, fabrication of normally closed valves is typically more difficult because the valve structure must be selectively bonded to its substrate. In this work, an oligomer stamping technique for selective bonding of normally closed valves is optimized for bonding of PDMS devices on glass substrates. Contact angle and blister bursting testing measurements are used to quantitatively characterize the oligomer stamping process for the first time, and recommendations are made for plasma treatment conditions, microstamping technique, and valve construction. Glass–PDMS devices are ideal for lab-on-chip systems that integrate electrodes on the rigid glass substrate. Here, integrated electrodes are used to assess valve performance, demonstrating electrical isolation in excess of 8 M$\mathsf{\Omega }$ over the biologically relevant frequency range in the closed state. Further, electrical measurement is used to demonstrate that the valve design can operate under a pulsed actuation scheme, sealing to withstand fluid pressures in excess of 200 mbar. Full article

Spheroids are expected to aid the establishment of an in vitro-based cell culture system that can realistically reproduce cellular dynamics in vivo. We developed a fluoropolymer scaffold with an extracellular matrix (ECM) dot array and confirmed the possibility of mass-producing spheroids with uniform dimensions. Controlling the quality of ECM dots is important as it ensures spheroid uniformity, but issues such as pattern deviation and ECM drying persist in the conventional microstamping method. In this study, these problems were overcome via ECM dot printing using a resin mask with dot-patterned holes. For dot diameters of φ 300 μm, 400 μm, and 600 μm, the average spheroid diameters of human iPS cells (hiPSCs) were φ 260.8 μm, 292.4 μm, and 330.7 μm, respectively. The standard deviation when each average was normalized to 100 was 14.1%. A high throughput of 89.9% for colony formation rate to the number of dots and 89.3% for spheroid collection rate was achieved. The cells proliferated on ECM dots, and the colonies could be naturally detached from the scaffold without the use of enzymes, so there was almost no stimulation of the cells. Thus, the undifferentiated nature of hiPSCs was maintained until day 4. Therefore, this method is expected to be useful in drug discovery and regenerative medicine. Full article

Establishing an in vitro–based cell culture system that can realistically simulate in vivo cell dynamics is desirable. It is thus necessary to develop a method for producing a large amount of cell aggregates (i.e., spheroids) that are uniform in size and quality. Various methods have been proposed for the preparation of spheroids; however, none of them satisfy all requirements, such as cost, size uniformity, and throughput. Herein, we successfully developed a new cell culture method by combining fluoropolymers and dot patterned extracellular matrix substrates to achieve size-controlled spheroids. First, the spheroids were spontaneously formed by culturing them two-dimensionally, after which the cells were detached with a weak liquid flow and cultured in suspension without enzyme treatment. Stable quality spheroids were easily produced, and it is expected that the introduction and running costs of the technique will be low; therefore, this method shows potential for application in the field of regenerative medicine. Full article

This study investigates the effect of grain size and composition on the material properties and forming limits of commercially supplied stainless steel foil for bipolar plate manufacture via tensile, stretch forming and micro-stamping trials. It is shown that in commercially supplied stainless steel the grain size can vary significantly and that ‘size effects’ can be influenced by prior steel processing and composition effects. While the forming limits in micro-stamping appear to be directly linked to the plane strain forming limits of the individual stainless steel alloys, there was a clear effect of the tensile anisotropy. In contrast to previous studies, forming severity and the likelihood of material failure did not increase with a decreasing channel profile radius. This was related to inaccuracies of the forming tool profile shape. Full article

Copper substrates were wrought to have micro-grooves for packaging by micro-stamping with use of a AISI316 stainless steel micro-punch array. The micro-texture of this arrayed punch was first tailored and compiled into CAD data. A screen film was prepared to have the tailored micro-pattern in correspondence to the CAD data. A negative pattern to this screen was printed directly onto the AISI316 die substrate. This substrate was plasma nitrided at 673 K for 14.4 ks. The unprinted die surfaces were selectively nitrogen super-saturated to have sufficiently high corrosion toughness and hardness; other surfaces were masked by the prints. The two-dimensional micro-pattern on the screen was transformed into a three-dimensional nitrogen supersaturated micro-texture embedded in the AISI316 die. The printed surfaces were selectively sand-blasted to fabricate the micro-textured punch array for micro-embossing. A uniaxial compression testing machine was utilized to describe the micro-embossing behavior in copper substrates and to investigate how the micro-texture on the die was transcribed to the copper. The micro-punch array in this study consisted of three closed loop heads with a width of 75 µm and a height of 120 µm after plasma nitriding and sand-blasting. Since the nitrogen supersaturated heads had sufficient hardness against the blasting media, the printed parts of AISI316 die were removed. The micro-embossing process was described by comparison of the geometric configurations between the multi-punch array and the embossed copper plate. Full article

A diamond-like carbon (DLC) film, coated on a AISI420-J2 stainless steel substrate and vertically aligned graphite (VAG), was structured by high-density plasma oxidation to work as a DLC-punch for micro-stamping and DLC-nozzle array for micro-dispensing, in addition to acting as a copper-plated thermal spreader, respectively. Thick DLC films were micro-patterned by maskless lithography and directly plasma-etched to remove the unmasked regions. Thick VAG (Ca plates were micro-patterned by screen-printing and selectively etched to activate the surface. Raman spectroscopy as well as electric resistivity measurement proved that there was no degradation of VAG by this surface activation. Wet plating was utilized to prove that copper wettability was improved by this surface treatment. Full article

Polydimethyl-siloxane (PDMS) is often applied to fabricate cell chips. In this study, we fabricated an adipocyte microcell pattern chips using PDMS to analyze the inhibition activity of lipid droplets in mouse embryo fibroblast cells (3T3-L1) with anti-obesity agents. To form the PDMS based micropattern, we applied the micro-contact printing technique using PDMS micro-stamps that had been fabricated by conventional soft lithography. This PDMS micro-pattern enabled the selective growth of 3T3-L1 cells onto the specific region by preventing cell adhesion on the PDMS region. It then allowed growth of the 3T3-L1 cells in the chip for 10 days and confirmed that lipid droplets were formed in the 3T3-L1 cells. After treatment of orlistat and quercetin were treated in an adipocyte micro-cell pattern chip with 3T3-L1 cells for six days, we found that orlistat and quercetin exhibited fat inhibition capacities of 19.3% and 24.4% from 0.2 μM of lipid droplets in 3T3-L1 cells. In addition, we conducted a direct quantitative analysis of 3T3-L1 cell differentiation using Oil Red O staining. In conclusion, PDMS-based adipocyte micro-cell pattern chips may contribute to the development of novel bioactive compounds. Full article

Neural circuits are responsible for the brain’s ability to process and store information. Reductionist approaches to understanding the brain include isolation of individual neurons for detailed characterization. When maintained in vitro for several days or weeks, dissociated neurons self-assemble into randomly connected networks that produce synchronized activity and are capable of learning. This review focuses on efforts to control neuronal connectivity in vitro and construct living neural circuits of increasing complexity and precision. Microfabrication-based methods have been developed to guide network self-assembly, accomplishing control over in vitro circuit size and connectivity. The ability to control neural connectivity and synchronized activity led to the implementation of logic functions using living neurons. Techniques to construct and control three-dimensional circuits have also been established. Advances in multiple electrode arrays as well as genetically encoded, optical activity sensors and transducers enabled highly specific interfaces to circuits composed of thousands of neurons. Further advances in on-chip neural circuits may lead to better understanding of the brain. Full article

The research and development in the field of magnetoresistive sensors has played an important role in the last few decades. Here, the authors give an introduction to the fundamentals of the anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) and the giant magnetoresistive (GMR) effect as well as an overview of various types of sensors in industrial applications. In addition, the authors present their recent work in this field, ranging from sensor systems fabricated on traditional substrate materials like silicon (Si), over new fabrication techniques for magnetoresistive sensors on flexible substrates for special applications, e.g., a flexible write head for component integrated data storage, micro-stamping of sensors on arbitrary surfaces or three dimensional sensing under extreme conditions (restricted mounting space in motor air gap, high temperatures during geothermal drilling). Full article

A fully integrated humidity sensor chip was designed, implemented, and tested. Utilizing the micro-stamping technology, the pseudo-3D sensor system-on-chip (SSoC) architecture can be implemented by stacking sensing materials directly on the top of a CMOS-fabricated chip. The fabricated sensor system-on-chip (2.28 mm × 2.48 mm) integrated a humidity sensor, an interface circuit, a digital controller, and an On-Off Keying (OOK) wireless transceiver. With low power consumption, i.e., 750 μW without RF operation, the sensitivity of developed sensor chip was experimentally verified in the relative humidity (RH) range from 32% to 60%. The response time of the chip was also experimentally verified to be within 5 seconds from RH 36% to RH 64%. As a consequence, the implemented humidity SSoC paves the way toward the an ultra-small sensor system for various applications. Full article