Multilayer electronic component systems and methods of manufacture

Multilayer electronic component systems and methods of manufacture are provided. In this regard, an exemplary system comprises a first layer of liquid crystal polymer (LCP), first electronic components supported by the first layer, and a second layer of LCP. The first layer is attached to the second layer by thermal bonds. Additionally, at least a portion of the first electronic components are located between the first layer and the second layer

Microstrip Antenna Arrays on Multilayer LCP Substrates

A research and development effort now underway is directed toward satisfying requirements for a new type of relatively inexpensive, lightweight, microwave antenna array and associated circuitry packaged in a thin, flexible sheet that can readily be mounted on a curved or flat rigid or semi-rigid surface. A representative package of this type consists of microwave antenna circuitry embedded in and/or on a multilayer liquid- crystal polymer (LCP) substrate. The circuitry typically includes an array of printed metal microstrip patch antenna elements and their feedlines on one or more of the LCP layer(s). The circuitry can also include such components as electrostatically actuated microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches for connecting and disconnecting antenna elements and feedlines. In addition, the circuitry can include switchable phase shifters described below. LCPs were chosen over other flexible substrate materials because they have properties that are especially attractive for high-performance microwave applications. These properties include low permittivity, low loss tangent, low water-absorption coefficient, and low cost. By means of heat treatments, their coefficients of thermal expansion can be tailored to make them more amenable to integration into packages that include other materials. The nature of the flexibility of LCPs is such that large LCP sheets containing antenna arrays can be rolled up, then later easily unrolled and deployed. Figure 1 depicts a prototype three- LCP-layer package containing two four-element, dual-polarization microstrip-patch arrays: one for a frequency of 14 GHz, the other for a frequency of 35 GHz. The 35-GHz patches are embedded on top surface of the middle [15-mil (approx.0.13-mm)-thick] LCP layer; the 14- GHz patches are placed on the top surface of the upper [9-mil (approx. 0.23-mm)-thick] LCP layer. The particular choice of LCP layer thicknesses was made on the basis of extensive analysis of the effects of the thicknesses on cross-polarization levels, bandwidth, and efficiency at each frequency

Color Capable Sub-Pixel Resolving Optofluidic Microscope and Its Application to Blood Cell Imaging for Malaria Diagnosis

Miniaturization of imaging systems can significantly benefit clinical diagnosis in challenging environments, where access to physicians and good equipment can be limited. Sub-pixel resolving optofluidic microscope (SROFM) offers high-resolution imaging in the form of an on-chip device, with the combination of microfluidics and inexpensive CMOS image sensors. In this work, we report on the implementation of color SROFM prototypes with a demonstrated optical resolution of 0.66 µm at their highest acuity. We applied the prototypes to perform color imaging of red blood cells (RBCs) infected with Plasmodium falciparum, a particularly harmful type of malaria parasites and one of the major causes of death in the developing world

Clinically Relevant Characterization of Lung Adenocarcinoma Subtypes Based on Cellular Pathways: An International Validation Study

Lung adenocarcinoma (AD) represents a predominant type of lung cancer demonstrating significant morphologic and molecular heterogeneity. We sought to understand this heterogeneity by utilizing gene expression analyses of 432 AD samples and examining associations between 27 known cancer-related pathways and the AD subtype, clinical characteristics and patient survival. Unsupervised clustering of AD and gene expression enrichment analysis reveals that cell proliferation is the most important pathway separating tumors into subgroups. Further, AD with increased cell proliferation demonstrate significantly poorer outcome and an increased solid AD subtype component. Additionally, we find that tumors with any solid component have decreased survival as compared to tumors without a solid component. These results lead to the potential to use a relatively simple pathological examination of a tumor in order to determine its aggressiveness and the patient's prognosis. Additional results suggest the ability to use a similar approach to determine a patient's sensitivity to targeted treatment. We then demonstrated the consistency of these findings using two independent AD cohorts from Asia (N = 87) and Europe (N = 89) using the identical analytic procedures

Aurora kinase A inhibition reverses the Warburg effect and elicits unique metabolic vulnerabilities in glioblastoma

Aurora kinase A (AURKA) has emerged as a drug target for glioblastoma (GBM). However, resistance to therapy remains a critical issue. By integration of transcriptome, chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (CHIP-seq), Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin sequencing (ATAC-seq), proteomic and metabolite screening followed by carbon tracing and extracellular flux analyses we show that genetic and pharmacological AURKA inhibition elicits metabolic reprogramming mediated by inhibition of MYC targets and concomitant activation of Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor Alpha (PPARA) signaling. While glycolysis is suppressed by AURKA inhibition, we note an increase in the oxygen consumption rate fueled by enhanced fatty acid oxidation (FAO), which was accompanied by an increase of Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC1α). Combining AURKA inhibitors with inhibitors of FAO extends overall survival in orthotopic GBM PDX models. Taken together, these data suggest that simultaneous targeting of oxidative metabolism and AURKAi might be a potential novel therapy against recalcitrant malignancies

A Bioinformatics Filtering Strategy for Identifying Radiation Response Biomarker Candidates

The number of biomarker candidates is often much larger than the number of clinical patient data points available, which motivates the use of a rational candidate variable filtering methodology. The goal of this paper is to apply such a bioinformatics filtering process to isolate a modest number (<10) of key interacting genes and their associated single nucleotide polymorphisms involved in radiation response, and to ultimately serve as a basis for using clinical datasets to identify new biomarkers. In step 1, we surveyed the literature on genetic and protein correlates to radiation response, in vivo or in vitro, across cellular, animal, and human studies. In step 2, we analyzed two publicly available microarray datasets and identified genes in which mRNA expression changed in response to radiation. Combining results from Step 1 and Step 2, we identified 20 genes that were common to all three sources. As a final step, a curated database of protein interactions was used to generate the most statistically reliable protein interaction network among any subset of the 20 genes resulting from Steps 1 and 2, resulting in identification of a small, tightly interacting network with 7 out of 20 input genes. We further ranked the genes in terms of likely importance, based on their location within the network using a graph-based scoring function. The resulting core interacting network provides an attractive set of genes likely to be important to radiation response

STRUCTURAL INVESTIGATION OF AN FeB METALLIC GLASS BY POLARISED NEUTRON DIFFRACTION

Nous avons étudié le verre métallique Fe83B17 par diffusion de neutrons polarisés, utilisant le spectromètre D5 de l'ILL, Grenoble. Nous avons obtenu des diagrammes de diffraction avec un champ magnétique appliqué parallèle et perpendiculaire au vecteur de diffusion, (H || Q, H ⊥ Q). Les facteurs de structure partiels SFeFe(Q) et SFeB(Q) out été obtenus des sections efficaces de diffusion normalises. Ces courbes sont discutées en relation avec des modèles de structure des verres métalliques et nous donnons aussi les renseignements sur le moment magnétique et le facteur de forme magnétique.Neutron diffraction measurements have been made on the ferromagnetic metallic glass Fe83B17 using D5 polarised beam spectrometer at ILL, Grenoble. Neutron diffraction patterns have been obtained with a magnetic field applied in the H || Q and H ⊥ Q configurations. The partial structure factors SFeFe(Q) and SFeB(Q) were obtained from the suitably normalised scattering cross-sections. These former curves are discussed in relation to current models of metallic alloy glasses, and information of the magnetic moment, and magnetic form factor is also presented