Membrane proteins play a critically important role, especially in molecular recognition and cellular transport processes, which makes them the most prevalent drug targets and also to be a good sensing element for biosensing applications. However, the skill-dependent and manual fashion to form bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) has limited their use for application purposes. Here, we introduce a fabrication technique of SU-8 microchannel suitable for microfluidic-based BLM formation and show a preliminary step of our ISFET-based BLM sensor. Making notches on the corners of a rectangular through-wafer hole etched in a silicon carrier substrate reduced the gap width between an embedded chip and the carrier as close as possible, leading to the gap depth of ∼4 µm. SU-8 microchannel on the chip-carrier assembly was directly fabricated by UV exposure through a bonded quartz lid and developing SU-8 through the fluidic ports drilled in the lid, without needing a sealing process typically causes an alignment mismatch or void formation. Finally, the capability to form BLMs was tested and proven by the successfully encapsulated fluorescent dye in microwells fabricated on the embedded chip. This paper is the first report of the successful formation of BLMs on a chip-in-carrier assembly by the microfluidic method.

There is a high possibility for declining trees to have fallen and some accidents have been occurring. Thereby, an accurate diagnosis is strongly necessary to maintain and manage the physiological status of trees. In addition, it is desired that a simple and non-destructive evaluation would be possible for diagnosis. Therefore, the bioelectric potential of trees has been measured for a long period of time these days. The analysis of measured potential shows that there are several factors which influence the potential fluctuation. In this paper, the bioelectric potential is found to be affected by temperature and precipitation, and there is a difference in the patterns of potential fluctuation between healthy and declining individuals. In particular, it is shown that there is a difference between the differential curves of the bioelectric potential and the periodic features. By using the obtained results, new indices for estimating the degree of tree decline based on the bioelectric potential are obtained. This paper describes the analyses of bioelectric potential fluctuation factors and suggests some indicators for estimating the degree of decline.

The paper addresses fabrication and characterization of a MEMS tactile sensor sensitive to force and temperature with an on-chip heater and a contact part of thermally conductive elastomer. The temperature response of this sensor due to heat transfer when it was in contact with the glass plate was measured. As a result, it is demonstrated that fabricated sensor can detect thermally difference due to differences in the surface treatment of the glass.

We have developed a scanning probe microscope to evaluate the device with high spatial resolution in a power semiconductor device with a voltage applied. Specifically, we observed the cross-sectional structure of exposed SiC planar MOSFET using a multifunctional probe microscope, which combines atomic force microscopy, Kelvin probe force microscopy, and scanning capacitance force microscopy. By observing the channel formation and carrier concentration change in response to the application of voltage, we were able to visualize the internal phenomenon due to the channel formation.

The development of micro power supply technologies for mobile phones and portable electronics has increased in recent years. Methods of self-power generation using the vibration loads of structures have attracted attention as the power supply technologies. The purpose of the study is to develop a high-efficiency PZT generator element that utilizes the vibration loads in the support members of a structure, and a wireless accelerometer device using the PZT generator element as a power source. In this paper, we report results of verification tests of a wireless acceleration monitoring system that employs a small air compressor as a vibration source and drives the wireless accelerometer device by vibration power generation using La-doped and laminated PZT elements. The wireless accelerometer device is composed of constant voltage circuit, capacitors, switching circuit, voltage sensor and wireless accelerometer module. The charges generated from La-doped and laminated PZT element are charged by the capacitor, and it reaches to the wireless accelerometer through the switching circuit. As results of the tests, it is confirmed that the wireless accelerometer device using La-doped and laminated PZT elements is driven by vibrations of the small compressor.

Vapor etching is an important process for a vacuum encapsulation of nano-electromechanical systems. We study a contribution of semipermeable membrane thickness to vacuum cavity fabrication. We reveal that the sufficient thickness ensures fabrication robustness of the vacuum cavity since it prevents compressive stress from destroying the membrane.