Tesis doctoral de Martí Duocastella SolÁ
The possibility to print tiny amounts of functional materials in a controllable way is of interest in a large number of applications, for instance in the manufacturing of organic electronics, in the deposition of artificial organs (the so-called organ printing), or in the fabrication of miniaturized devices in areas like biosensing. This has prompted the development of microfabrication techniques capable of depositing such functional materials. the present work is focused on one of these techniques, particularly on a laser-based direct-writing technique called laser-induced forward transfer (lift), in which laser pulses are used to deposit material from a donor film to a receptor substrate. This technique is especially interesting due to the possibility that it offers to print droplets of solutions containing functional materials with a high resolution. Moreover, it has additional advantages such as the capability to work in air (at atmospheric pressure and room temperature), the fact that it is a non-contact technique that avoids contamination problems, and the possibility to combine it with laser micromachining. in this work, a complete study of the lift of liquid solutions is performed in order to achieve a better understanding of this technique and to find the optimum printing conditions. Such study comprises the analysis of the role that some of the most important experimental parameters have on the printed droplets, as well as the analysis of the mechanisms involved in the ejection and deposition of material through lift. This is accomplished by means of both the morphological characterization of the printed, droplets at different conditions and the time-resolved imaging of the lift process, including the ejection and transport of liquids, as well as the deposition of liquid on the receptor substrate. The present work has provides a complete picture of lift process: the experimental conditions adequate for droplet printing have been set up, and the mechanisms responsible for the generation of droplets have been unveiled. The feasibility of the technique for protein printing has also been demonstrated. Moreover, it has also been found the preparation of the liquid film in thin form is the major problem that the technique faces. This last aspect has motivated the research of a new technique capable of dispensing with the preparation of the liquid film. This novel technique has been successfully developed and tested in this thesis work.
Datos académicos de la tesis doctoral «Study of the laser forward transfer for the preparation of miniaturized biosensors«
- Título de la tesis: Study of the laser forward transfer for the preparation of miniaturized biosensors
- Autor: Martí Duocastella SolÁ
- Universidad: Barcelona
- Fecha de lectura de la tesis: 17/05/2010
Dirección y tribunal
- Director de la tesis
- Pedro Serra Coromina
- Tribunal
- Presidente del tribunal: José Luis Morenza gil
- philippe Delaporte (vocal)
- (vocal)
- (vocal)