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Thermally actuated, bistable, snapping membranes have been fabricated on a silicon wafer and tested. Nonlinear finite element analysis has been used to gain an understanding of the thermomechanical behavior of these devices. A unique feature of these membranes is that they buckle downward with an increase in temperature beyond a critical value, and remain in the downward buckled state as the temperature decreases back to its initial value. The demonstration devices consist of 2 mm2, 3–4 µm thick silicon membranes with a 1 µm thick layer of silicon dioxide grown on one side and a 3 µm thick layer of aluminum deposited onto the other side. The critical snapping temperature range is measured to be 55 °C ± 5 °C. The snapping temperature is varied by changing the membrane dimensions and/or the materials used to realize the composite membrane structure. Applications to thermal actuation devices and temperature indicators are envisioned.

Reversible tubing connections for glass micro-fluidic systems are realized using electro-chemical discharge machining of three-dimensional glass vias. The connections reversibly connect standard sized plastic tubing to holes in borosilicate microscope slides. Tubing connections are demonstrated on a sealed, micro-fluidic channel which is fabricated between two glass slides using SU-8. The connections are experimentally tested to withstand up to 30 psi (~206 kPa) of air pressure without leaking.

This paper reports a simple and controllable technique to fabricate nano-gap electrodes using a combined electrochemical and chemical etching. A line of metal is initially patterned using a conventional lithography process at the width of 2 µm. The line is then continuously etched until it is discontinued at the desirable gap. We have been successfully fabricated a