Paul Scherrer Institut

Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich

Empa Eidg. Materialprufungs—und Forschungsanstalt

Konstantins Jefimovs

Marco Stampanoni

Matias Kagias

Renato Zenobi

Lucia Romano

Andrea Amantonico

Joan Vila Comamala

Stephan Fagerer

Pawel Urban

Nils Goedecke

Elements of photonic devices with high aspect ratio patterns are fabricated. A stabilizing catalyst that forms a stable metal-semiconductor alloy allows to etch a substrate in vertical direction even at very low oxidant concentration without external bias or magnetic field. A metal layer on the substrate reacts with the oxidant contained in air and catalyzes the semiconductor etching by the etchant. Air in continuous flow at the metal layer allows to maintain constant the oxidant concentration in proximity of the metal layer. The process can continue for a long time in order to form very high aspect ratio structures in the order of 10,000:1. Once the etched semiconductor structure is formed, the continuous air flow supports the reactant species diffusing through the etched semiconductor structure to maintain a uniform etching rate. The continuous air flow supports the diffusion of reaction by-products to avoid poisoning of the etching reaction.

System and method for fabricating photonic device elements

A sample support plate () for a variety of possible applications, including MALDI mass spectrometry, is disclosed. A plurality of spatially separated sample recipient sites () are arranged on the surface of a substrate. The recipient sites are mutually separated by areas having a different wettability than the recipient sites. They are arranged in a plurality of rows consisting of a plurality of recipient sites whose centers are regularly spaced along a first direction with a predetermined periodicity (D), the rows being regularly spaced along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction with a predetermined centerline distance (D). Each recipient site has a maximum lateral dimension that is preferably smaller than the diameter of a beam spot () of a desorption laser beam (). In order to enable unsupervised splitting of bulk liquid samples into droplets at the sample recipient sites, the periodicity along the first direction and the centerline distance along the second direction are chosen such that each recipient sites has a next neighbor at a distance that is less than or equal to three times the minimum lateral dimension of each recipient site. In preferred embodiments, the sample recipient sites are arranged in a checkerboard-type pattern or in rows that are inclined relative to the edges of the sample support plate.

High-density sample support plate for automated sample aliquoting

Growing community of inventors

Tegerfelden, Switzerland

Konstantins Jefimovs