The precise measurement of a capacitance difference or ratio in a digital form is
very important for capacitive sensors, for CMOS process characterization as well as for the
realization of precise switched-capacitor data converters, amplifiers and other circuits
utilizing ratioed capacitors. This thesis introduces design techniques for on-chip capacitor
ratio...
Unlike other biosensing, electrochemical biosensor has the advantages of robustness, easy miniaturization, excellent detection limits, and capability in handling small analyte volumes. The detection selectivity of the electrochemical biosensors is mainly supported by bioreceptors. However, these receptors always suffer from the performance variation caused by the environment and the thermal-...
Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs), such as indium-tin oxide (ITO), have attracted increasing interests in integrated photonics and nanophotonics, owing to their large plasma dispersion and epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) effect. The refractive index modulation induced by free carriers in TCOs leads to a large electro-optic effect that can enable ultra-compact device footprint...
The development and some applications of holographic optical tweezers (HOT) are presented. Our HOT system uses a spatial light modulator (SLM) to control the location and properties of the optical trap. We have developed a method for optimizing the diffraction efficiency of a SLM that can be applied in situ...
The phragmoplast associated kinesin, PAKRP2, from the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana is categorized as an orphan, or ungrouped, kinesin due to structural divergences from the established 14 kinesin families. An early study on PAKRP2 found that it localized to the phragmoplast mid zone during the late stages of cell division...
Cell division, arguably the most important event during the life cycle of the eukaryotic cell, is achieved through a complicated yet beautiful machinery. The mitotic spindle — a microtubule-based bipolar structure—is the cellular machinery responsible for the correct segregation of the genetic material, chromosomes. The protein-based nanomachines termed molecular motors...
Taking long-term electrical measurements of a large number of neurons simultaneously is required for many modern neuroscience experiments. However, such experiments are currently limited by the shortcomings of traditional neurosensing technology. For example, there is a significant mechanical mismatch between rigid silicon probes and soft biological tissues. This mismatch can...
Organic semiconductors have attracted considerable attention due to their applications in low-cost, solution-processable (opto)electronic devices. An important class of high-performance organic semiconductors is pentacene derivatives, which exhibit high charger carrier mobilities in field-effect transistors and ultrafast singlet fission in photovoltaic devices. These derivatives have served as benchmark materials for systematic...
Organic semiconductors are used in a wide variety of applications including transistors,solar cells, and light emitting diodes. These materials are solution-processable,low cost, and tunable. Many successful organic optoelectronic materials utilizeblends of several types of molecules (such as donors and acceptors) in order topromote charge generation. As blends are an inherently...
One of the biggest open questions in physics is the prevalence of matter over anti-matter in the present universe. One of possible answers lies in the violation of charge and parity symmetry in the lepton sector that would favor matter over anti-matter so that the universe becomes dominated by matter...