SummaryCellular response to both surface topography and surface chemistry has been studied for several years. However, most of the studies focus on only one of the two parameters and do not consider their possible synergistic effects. Here, we report on a fabrication method for nanostructured surfaces composed of highly ordered arrays of silica nanocones with gold tips. By using a combination of block copolymer nanolithography, electroless deposition, and reactive ion etching several parameters such as structure height and structure distance could easily be adjusted to the desired values. The gold tips allow for easy functionalization of the substrates through a thiol linker system. Improved neural cell adhesion can be obtained and is dependent on the nature of the nanocone surface, thus illustrating the influence of different surface topographies on the nanometer length scale, on a complex cellular behavior such as cell adhesion. Substrate and surface functionality are shown to last over several days, leading to the conclusion that the features of our substrates can also be used for longer term experiments. Finally, initial neural cell adhesion is found to be more prominent on substrates with short intercone distances, which is an important finding for research dealing with the reactions of neuron-like tissue in the immediate moments after direct contact with an implanted surface.

Defect detection and defect control are crucial for yield improvement in semiconductor industry. A discrepancy between detected defects compared to yield data regarding a common defect type was found. Historical data show a different behavior was seen on different product groups. A product design analysis on affected layer shows a striking difference in the Terminal Metal Layer (TML) line orientation between those product groups. A particle deposition system was used to distribute a fixed number of PSL spheres on to wafers prior etch process and defect inspections with different wafer notch orientations were performed at the final step. Those deposited PSL spheres prior etch process resulted in extra pattern defects at the inspection step. Extra pattern defects were mostly detected using a certain wafer notch orientation recipe to the majority of TML line orientation compared to the other one. This case study discusses the influence of a defect inspection wafer notch orientation to the defect capture rate on TML layer. Based on this result, the industry should consider the majority line orientation of respective layer on each inspection step when creating a new defect scanning recipe, especially for TML layer.