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Ammonia metabolism of hepatocytes was monitored at nanolitre-scale volumes of a medium in a microsystem with microfluidic and sensing functions.

Consistent cell preparation is a fundamental preliminary step for understanding complex cellular mechanisms in various cell-based research fields, including basic cell biology, cancer research, and tissue engineering. However, certain elusive factors, such as cellular de-differentiation and contamination with mycoplasma or other types of cells, have compromised the reproducibility and reliability of cell-based approaches. Here, we propose an epi relief-contrast cellular monitoring system (eRC-CMS) that allows images of cells in a typical culture plate to be acquired, stored, and analysed for daily cell quality control. Due to its full flatbed nature and automated system, cells placed at any location on the stage can be analysed without special attention. Using this system, changes in the size, circularity, and proliferation of endothelial cells in subculture were recorded. Analyses of images of ~9,930,000 individual cells revealed that the growth activity and cell circularity in subcultures were closely correlated with their angiogenic activity in a subsequent hydrogel assay, demonstrating that eRC-CMS is useful for assessing cell quality in advance. We further demonstrated that eRC-CMS was feasible for the imaging of neurite elongation and spheroid formation. This system may provide a robust and versatile approach for daily cell preparation to facilitate reliable and reproducible cell-based studies.

This paper presents the modeling, design, fabrication and characterization, up to 30 GHz, of low loss and high aspectratio 55 μm diameter through package vias (TPVs) in 300 μm thick glass interposers. These TPVs were fabricated using a novel, high-throughput, focused electrical discharge method and low cost panel-based double-side metallization processes. Such a glass interposer is targeted at two emerging applications, (a) large 30 mm to 60 mm body size 2.5D interposers to achieve 28.8 Gbps logic-memory bandwidth and (b) 3D interposers for mm wave applications at 28 GHz local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) for future 5G networks. Accurate measurement of the electrical performance of fine pitch metallized through vias in glass up to 30 GHz and beyond is critical for both these high performance interposer applications. In this paper, two novel characterization methods are applied: 1) the short-circuit-andopen-circuit method and 2) the dual-via-chain method. The resistance and the inductance of a single via are extracted by using a short-circuit structure along with an open-circuit structure. At 10 GHz, the values for the series resistance and inductance have average values of 0.1 Ω and 160 pH respectively. Long dual-via chains were designed to evaluate their performance in insertion loss, delay and eye diagram. The insertion loss achieved with the longest dual-via chain was found to be less than 1 dB/cm up to 30 GHz with only a 6.2 ps delay in the TPVs, and the simulations indicate a wide open eye.