This WIMS Seminar has three speakers

All speakers are graduate students at the Univ. of Michigan
TITLE (Jaehyun Park): Electrolytic Patterning of Dissolved Oxygen Microgradients During Cell Culture

ABSTRACT:
We present a microsystem capable of electrochemically patterning the dissolved oxygen gradients present in cell culture. Multiple microelectrodes in an array are separated from the cells by an oxygen permeable membrane. Each electrode generates distinct amounts of dissolved oxygen via electrolysis; these different sources superimpose to generate one- and two-dimensional microgradient profiles not possible with other methods. We believe this is the first technology that enables researchers to pattern localized oxygen doses and program arbitrary oxygen gradients with microscale resolution during cell culture. We present fluorescent and colorimetric data on the construction of two-dimensional oxygen microgradients in aqueous solution and preliminary cell culture results with C2C12 rat myoblasts.

TITLE (Jay Mitchell): A Gold-Silicon Eutectic Wafer-Level Vacuum Package and Its Characterization Using Integrated Vacuum Sensors

ABSTRACT: A generic wafer-level vacuum package using Au-Si eutectic bonding has been
developed and characterized using Pirani vacuum gauges. Au-Si eutectic bonding
is a particularly attractive bonding technique for device packaging because of
its process simplicity, low temperature bonding (>363 °~C), and the soft eutectic
mixture that allows bonding over nonplanar surfaces-thus potentially permitting
its use in CMOS without planarization. Using getters (which react with trapped
gasses), pressures as low as 5 mTorr have been achieved with leak/outgassing
rates of <10 mTorr/year. TITLE (Willie Steinecker): Introduction of a new SLC program for inter-department education.