NOVEL PATENTED
LASER HAS
ENVIRONMENTAL,
HEALTH, AND
MANUFACTURING
APPLICATIONS
ECE Professors John Dallesasse and Milton Feng have created a
transistor-injected quantum cascade laser, which is a hybrid of an
heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and quantum cascade laser
(QCL). This 3-terminal device emits light between the mid-infrared and terahertz frequencies, can be made on many substrates,
and can be manufactured easily in a commercial GaAs foundry.
“We think the advantages of our device are compelling because
the [TI-QCL] will allow not only a lot of conventional QCL uses like
gas detection, chemical sensing, and process monitoring, but it will
also enable some interesting communications applications for freespace links,” said Dallesasse. “Applications in the THz region might
also open up because of our device.”
SELF-ROLLED-UP MEMBRANE
HAS MEDICAL AND ELECTRONIC
APPLICATIONS
ECE Professor Xiuling Li and Cell & Developmental Biology Professor Martha
Gillette led a team of researchers who created a neuron cell culturing platform
that consists of arrays of ordered microtubes (2.7 - 4.4μm in diameter) formed by
strain-induced self-rolled-up nanomembrane (s-RUM) technology using ultrathin
(<40 nm) silicon nitride (SiNx) film on transparent substrates. This patented technique helps neuron cells grow 20x faster than conventional methods. Someday
these microtubes may be implanted like stents to promote neuron regrowth at
injury sites or to treat disease.
Several years ago, Li’s group used the s-RUM technique to make an inductor, a
key integrated circuit element, 100x smaller without sacrificing performance. Processed while flat, the inductors then roll themselves up on their own, taking up
much less space on a chip.
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