Laser-induced prenucleation of alumina for electroless plating

This paper deals with the deposition of palladium from decomposition of a thin palladium acetate layer on rough and porous alumina ceramic surfaces by irradiating it with a UV excimer laser. The palladium acetate layer was formed from a combination of propyl glycol methyl ether acetate solvent and photoresist, and the undecomposed material was removed with the photoresist remover. The discontinuous palladium cluster film formed by the technique was used as seed for electroless coatings. Different patterns were obtained using point focus as well as projection pattering method and subsequently plated with adhesive layers of electroless Ni-B coating

Selective metallization of alumina by laser

Nickel has been selectively deposited on an alumina substrate without any pretreatment from a flow of a nickel acetate solution using the focused beam of an excimer laser. Nickel spots as well as nickel lines were drawn and subsequently plated with an electroless Ni-B coating. Excellent adhesion of the metallized layers was achieved, since with laser irradiation, both etching and deposition took place simultaneously

Method to make a single-step etch mask for 3D monolithic nanostructures

Current nanostructure fabrication by etching is usually limited to planar structures as they are defined by a planar mask. The realisation of three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures by etching requires technologies beyond planar masks. We present a method to fabricate a 3D mask that allows to etch three-dimensional monolithic nanostructures by using only CMOS-compatible processes. The mask is written in a hard-mask layer that is deposited on two adjacent inclined surfaces of a Si wafer. By projecting in single step two different 2D patterns within one 3D mask on the two inclined surfaces, the mutual alignment between the patterns is ensured. Thereby after the mask pattern is defined, the etching of deep pores in two oblique directions yields a three-dimensional structure in Si. As a proof of concept we demonstrate 3D mask fabrication for three-dimensional diamond-like photonic band gap crystals in silicon. The fabricated crystals reveal a broad stop gap in optical reflectivity measurements. We propose how 3D nanostructures with five different Bravais lattices can be realised, namely cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic, and hexagonal, and demonstrate a mask for a 3D hexagonal crystal. We also demonstrate the mask for a diamond-structure crystal with a 3D array of cavities. In general, the 2D patterns for the different surfaces can be completely independent and still be in perfect mutual alignment. Indeed, we observe an alignment accuracy of better than 3.0 nm between the 2D mask patterns on the inclined surfaces, which permits one to etch well-defined monolithic 3D nanostructures.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

The move beyond edutainment: have we learnt our lessons from the entertainment industry?

Serious games (SGs) have been used in the education of students and professionals for decades, but still have not reached their full potential, despite the large consensus they have gained recently. The entertainment game industry is a rapidly developing phenomenon, with a high market potential, enabled and enhanced by technological innovation. The question examined in this paper is: Did serious game designers learn from Entertainment Game (EG) designers in building a successful game? This paper presents three case study examples of games that have good learning outcomes to explore this question. This paper discusses the salient aspects and the differences between the examples and suggests how SGs could learn more from successful EGs

Iron Depletion: An Ameliorating Factor for Sickle Cell Disease?

We report some observations from our laboratory practice that might be important for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). We describe data from two cases indicating that iron depletion might have a beneficial effect diminishing the formation of HbS in favor of HbF, possibly reducing the severity of the disease. We believe that it would be worthwhile to monitor the course of the disease comparing cases with identical genotypes with and without iron depletion, and we advise to consider chelation therapy to reduce iron overload in patients with SCD