Polyimide/SU-8 catheter-tip MEMS gauge pressure sensor.

This paper describes the development of a polyimide/SU-8 catheter-tip MEMS gauge pressure sensor. Finite element analysis was used to investigate critical parameters, impacting on the device design and sensing characteristics. The sensing element of the device was fabricated by polyimide-based micromachining on a flexible membrane, using embedded thin-film metallic wires as piezoresistive elements. A chamber containing this flexible membrane was sealed using an adapted SU-8 bonding technique. The device was evaluated experimentally and its overall performance compared with a commercial silicon-based pressure sensor. Furthermore, the device use was demonstrated by measuring blood pressure and heart rate in vivo

Separation of blood microsamples by exploiting sedimentation at the microscale.

Microsample analysis is highly beneficial in blood-based testing where cutting-edge bioanalytical technologies enable the analysis of volumes down to a few tens of microliters. Despite the availability of analytical methods, the difficulty in obtaining high-quality and standardized microsamples at the point of collection remains a major limitation of the process. Here, we detail and model a blood separation principle which exploits discrete viscosity differences caused by blood particle sedimentation in a laminar flow. Based on this phenomenon, we developed a portable capillary-driven microfluidic device that separates blood microsamples collected from finger-pricks and delivers 2 µL of metered serum for bench-top analysis. Flow cytometric analysis demonstrated the high purity of generated microsamples. Proteomic and metabolomic analyses of the microsamples of 283 proteins and 1351 metabolite features was consistent with samples generated via a conventional centrifugation method. These results were confirmed by a clinical study scrutinising 8 blood markers in obese patients

Influence of the materials magnetic state on the accurate determination of the magnetocaloric effect

In this paper, we report a detailed study of the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in different first order magnetic transition (FOMT) materials with different situation of the magnetic state (magnetic order). For this purpose, R-Co2, MnAs based compounds were considered in this study. The MCE is discussed in terms of Maxwell relation (MR) and Clausius-Clapeyron (C-C) equation. The deviation observed between both methods is discussed and analyzed. On the other hand, practically all the reported data of the MCE in the literature are associated to the applied external magnetic field and have not been corrected taking into account the demagnetization effect related to the materials shape. The obtained results demonstrate that this phenomenon can alter drastically the MCE values by cancelling out a large part of the external field, resulting in spurious values of the measured MCE. The effect of the demagnetization field on the magnetocaloric performances is also the subject of this paper

Dynamics of composite polymerization mediates the development of cuspal strain

In the current study, we used electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) to measure tooth deformation in response to polymerization of five resin composites with a range of polymerization shrinkage. Our hypothesis was that composites with higher polymerization shrinkage should cause more cuspal strain as measured by ESPI

Bulk transition elements based materials for magnetic cooling application

International audienceIn this paper we investigate the performances of two bulk magnetocaloric refrigerants based on La(Fe,Co)13-xSix and prepared by powder metallurgy. Both materials were developed especially for a magnetic cooling machine. We have determined the magnetocaloric effect in term of temperature change under magnetic field using a test-bench with practical running conditions. ΔT was measured under 2 T and close to room temperature range. The obtained results will be compared with those of some reference materials reported in the literature. In addition, a composite material based on La(Fe,Co)13-xSix is proposed for magnetic systems using Ericsson and AMR cycles for refrigeration close to room temperature