This paper reports a low-g MEMS acceleration switch with threshold acceleration below 10 g. The proposed switch is made of single-crystalline silicon for high thermal stability and stressfree structure. A vertical operation type is adopted to enable fine control of the contact surface during the fabrication process. The switch contains displacement-restricting structures in all directions for impact resistance and is packaged with anodic bonding process. The fabricated switches had an average proof mass, initial gap, and spring constant of 307.38 µg, 6.39 µm, and 3.29 N m −1 , respectively. Height profile of the free-hanging proof mass was measured to show that the switch does not suffer from stress problems. In the electrostatic operation test, the contact resistance of the switch was varied with contact force and the minimum value was estimated to be 8.5 Ω. The response time of the switch was measured to be shorter than 1.2 ms. The fabricated switch operated more than 10 000 cycles without failure. For the thermal stability test, the switch was heated at 80 °C for 6 h and the switch operated successfully over 200 times. In the rotation-table experiment, the switch operated at 6.61 g and error analysis was carried out in the consideration of tangential force generated during the rotation-table experiment. From the experimental values, the tangential force was calculated as 2.375 µN and the resulting reduction in the initial switching gap was simulated as 0.32 µm. The reduced threshold acceleration thus was estimated to be 6.62 g, which agrees very well with the measured threshold acceleration value of 6.61 g.

During the last decade, optogenetics has become an essential tool for neuroscience research due to its unrivaled feature of cell-type-specific neuromodulation. There have been several technological advances in light delivery devices. Among them, the combination of optogenetics and electrophysiology provides an opportunity for facilitating optogenetic approaches. In this study, a novel design of an optrode array was proposed for realizing optical modulation and electrophysiological recording. A 4 × 4 optrode array and five-channel recording electrodes were assembled as a disposable part, while a reusable part comprised an LED (light-emitting diode) source and a power line. After the characterization of the intensity of the light delivered at the fiber tips, in vivo animal experiment was performed with transgenic mice expressing channelrhodopsin, showing the effectiveness of optical activation and neural recording.

This paper presents a conventional LED (light emitting diode) and polymer waveguide coupled silicon optrode array. Unique lens design at the waveguide inlet enables a high light coupling efficiency with a single LED light source, and provides small power consumption compatible with a wireless optogenetic neuromodulation system. To increase the light intensity at the waveguide tip, a lensed waveguide is fabricated with epoxy-based photoresist SU-8, which has a plano-convex lens shape at the waveguide inlet to focus the light in the horizontal direction. In addition, a cylindrical lens is assembled in front of the waveguide inlet to focus the source light in the vertical direction. The glass cylindrical lens and SU-8 plano-convex lens increased the light coupling efficiency by 6.7 dB and 6.6 dB, respectively. The fabricated 1×4 array of optrodes is assembled with a single LED with 465 nm wavelength, which produces a light intensity of approximately 2.7 mW/mm2 at the SU-8 waveguide outlet when 50 mA input current is applied to the LED. Each optrode has four recording electrodes at the SU-8 waveguide outlet. The average impedance of the iridium oxide (IrOx) electroplated recording electrodes is 43.6 kΩ. In-vivo experiment at the hippocampus region CA1 and CA2 demonstrated the capability of optical stimulation and neural signal recording through the LED and SU-8 waveguide coupled silicon optrode array.

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Abstract:This paper reports an analysis on the relationship between the tilt of the proof mass in MEMS switch and the chattering phenomena. Low-g MEMS acceleration switch developed by Kim's group was modelled in 2D and displacements of each end of the proof mass were analysed using RK 4th method. Some elementary assumptions were made to ease the modelling and analysis. The chattering time of the MEMS switch gets longer as the tilt of the proof mass increases. The reason is that the elongated travel distance of one end of proof mass increases the impact velocity and lengthens the bouncing back time. From the results, we found that the chattering phenomena can last very long even if the tilt of the proof mass is very small.