Search

For preventive medicine, regular glucose monitoring is the potential production to detect the possibility of diseases at an early stage. The noninvasive and optical only glucose sensor is more user-friendly for customers because of the advantages of small size, low cost, and easy operation. The near-infrared (NIR) glucose sensor is the most popular analytic method based on the glucose properties of overtones and combinational bands. For hardware setup, the 3D printing machine was used to fabricate the assembly components including the sample cuvette structure, the sample holder, and the laser diode stage, etc. The sample cuvette was composed of the structure with two square glasses with optical path length of 1, 1.5, 2 mm, and the optical component include the 1456 nm laser diode and the PD (photodiode). This paper investigates the glucose precipitation experiment (0–90 min), the response voltages with the different optical path lengths (1, 1.5, and 2 mm), and the response voltages with the laser power was 574, 798, 950, and 1045 mW/cm2 according to Beer-Lambert law, respectively. In the results, the different response voltages had not different when the precipitation time less than 90 min. In addition, the concentration of the glucose solution with the same optical path length and the same laser power was proportional to the response voltage. The optical path length with the same concentration of the glucose solution and the same laser power was inversely proportional to the response voltage. The laser power with the same optical path length and the same concentration of the glucose solution was proportional to the response voltage. The 1 mm optical path length and the 1045 mW/cm2 laser power had the best discrimination than the other optical path lengths and the other laser powers. The experiment results indicate that the shortest optical path length and the largest laser power are required for the best discrimination of the noninvasive and optical only glucose monitoring production.

This current study investigated the effects of laser direct writing (LDW) on the capacitance force sensor of a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonic acid) film mixer with silver nanowire thin films by using a 532-nm laser system. The technique was combined with various scanning speeds (i.e., 800, 1000, and 1200 mm s−1) to investigate the effectiveness of the force sensor. During interdigitated electrode fabrication, the laser fluence and laser pulse repetition frequency were fixed at 5.42 J/cm2 and 40 kHz, respectively. Nonloading force and various loading force states were used to test the function of the electrode under different LDW conditions. A best correlation coefficient of approximately 0.88 confirmed a linear functional dependence between the square of the pattern width and capacitance under the micromachining speed of 1000 mm s−1. Moreover, in the nonloading force state, the capacitance value increased with the increase in the electrode pattern width under a micromachining speed of 800 mm s−1. Regarding the loading force status, the capacitance increased when the loading force increased from 18 to 90 g. When the interdigitated pattern line width was 500 μm and electrode micromachining speed was 800 mm s−1, the maximum capacitance value was 71.5 pF under a loading force of 90 g.

Optical measurement is conducted by employing components such as a spectrometer or photodiode (PD) to detect light intensity. However, the size of spectrometer is large because of its complex optical path and component. Moreover, a PD usually detects the total light intensity instead of the intensity of light at a specific wavelength. Therefore, a novel inverse light-emitting diode (LED) sensor was developed to measure light intensity at specific wavelengths because of the reverse effect of LEDs. In the experiments conducted in this paper, red, green, and blue LEDs were used in combination as the inverse LED sensor and light source. Moreover, commercial equipment such as a PD, an illuminometer, a power meter, and Actiwatch 2 were simultaneously employed to detect the light intensities. The results revealed that the intensity ratio evaluated using the inverse LED sensor was proportional to that of the light source. This implies that the correlation between the incident light and measured intensities from the proposed inverse LED sensor was stronger than commercial equipment. The relationship between intensity ratio, irradiance distance, and illumination angle was also determined. The least difference between the measured and ideal evaluated intensity ratio was 2.4%. The proposed inverse LED sensor has following advantages: low cost, small size, high-wavelength selectivity, and high-intensity correlation. In a future study, light intensity can be measured using wearable devices comprising the proposed inverse LED sensor, and the presented relationship can be evaluated to investigate the effect between the light intensity and physiological mechanisms or diseases.

The fluorescence signal of Sybr Green can represent the amount of target DNA copy numbers in the samples, thereby determine a positive or negative diagnostic results after polymerase chain reaction (PCR). For precision quantification of the target gene in the sample, the fluorescent signal should be recorded in each cycle. Traditionally, highly sensitive devices such as silicon photomultipliers and high-power light source such as laser diode were used to excite and detect the fluorescence from double strand DNA selective dyes. However, the costs of these components were too high to be widely applied for rapidly on-site screening of outbreak causing pathgens in local clinics and fields of tests. In this study, low-cost optical element such as LED and photodiode were used to implementan off-plane excitation method to enhance the fluorescence signal. Several parameters such as illumination angle between LED and photodiode in horizontal direction and tilted illumination in vertical direction were optimized in the experiment to ensure the performance. The results showed that the fluorescence intensity can be enhanced approximately 25 %. These results indicated that the developed illumination architecture had advantages of low background noise, high sensitivity and high fluorescence variation. This research has successfully demonstrated an off-plane excitation method for enhancing the resolution of qPCR system and applying in medical diagnostics, rapid screening and related applications.

Abiraterone and enzalutamide may increase the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). A comprehensive literature search was performed using a combination of keywords related to “abiraterone,” “enzalutamide,” “prostate cancer,” and “adverse events.” Phase II–IV randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on abiraterone or enzalutamide for patients with nonmetastatic or metastatic CRPC were included. Outcome measures included (1) any grade cardiac disorder, (2) severe grade cardiac disorder, (3) any grade hypertension, and (4) severe grade hypertension, as defined by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. Pairwise meta-analysis and Bayesian network meta-analyses were performed to investigate the risk ratios (RRs) of abiraterone and enzalutamide. Surface under cumulative ranking curves (SUCRAs) and cumulative ranking probability plots based on the probability of developing cardiac disorders or hypertension were presented. A total of 7103 patients from seven RCTs were included. Upon pairwise meta-analysis, abiraterone was associated with increased risks of any grade (RR = 1.34, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.05–1.73) and severe grade cardiac disorders (RR = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.16–2.53); enzalutamide was associated with increased risks of any grade (RR = 2.66, 95% CI = 1.93–3.66) and severe grade hypertension (RR = 2.79, 95% CI = 1.86–4.18). Based on the SUCRA rankings, abiraterone had a higher probability of cardiac disorders (84.84% for any grade and 85.12% for severe grade) than enzalutamide (62.83% for any grade and 50.76% for severe grade); whereas enzalutamide had a higher probability of hypertension (99.43% for any grade and 89.71% for severe grade) than abiraterone (49.08% for any grade and 49.37% for severe grade). Abiraterone and enzalutamide had different adverse effects on the cardiovascular system. We should take this into consideration when we are deciding on the choice of novel hormonal agents for patients with CRPC.

Appropriate dispersants for the dispersion of gallium zinc oxide (GZO) nanopowder in the commonly used organic medium-dimethylacetamide (DMAC) are proposed by this study. The dispersion efficiencies and stabilization mechanisms of three dispersants—the organic-based dispersant tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (OP3) and two water-based dispersant polyethylenimines (PEIs) with different molecular weights—are compared. Surprisingly, the water-based PEI polyelectrolytes exhibit greater efficiency than the organic-based OP3 for the dispersion of GZO nanopowder in the organic-based suspensions. This is because that the stabilization mechanism of GZO in the very polar DMAC is primarily related to steric repulsion rather than to electrostatic repulsion according to the theoretical and experimental analyses.

The widely used rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses provide higher oxygen permeability and tear exchange rate than do soft contact lenses. However, their wettability warrants improvement to enhance the wearing comfort. This study used UV laser (wavelength = 355 nm) to modify the surface properties of RGP contact lenses with materials of Boston XO&reg, (Bausch &amp, Lomb Incorporated). Briefly, the mesh pattern was fabricated on the RGP contact lens surface by using the laser and smoothed by using oxygen plasma, the enhanced hydrophilic efficiency was analyzed using contact angle measurement. The experiment results indicated that the contact angle of the lens material decreased by approximately 10&deg, &ndash, 20&deg, when the pitch of mesh pattern was &lt, 50 &mu, m under a 500-mm/s scanning speed. The oxygen plasma enhanced surface wettability with a decreased contact angle (40&deg, ). The hydrophilic characteristic of the UV laser and oxygen plasma&ndash, treated surface was twice that of oxygen plasma&ndash, treated and untreated surfaces. In the future, RGP contact lens edges could be treated with UV laser and oxygen plasma to enhance the tear wettability and wearing comfort.

The performance values indicated by commercially contact lenses are generally based on the lens material and not on actual values based on actual wearing conditions. To explore the actual moisture content of contact lenses, we developed a fast optical non-contact measurement method. In the experiment, we designed a contact lens that conforms to the human eye structure, uses high-intensity white LEDs for projection illumination, calculates the water content by the intensity change of the reflected light, and derives the water retention of the contact lens through numerical processing. The experimental results show that the sample with the highest water content has the fastest rate of water retention, so the wearability is positively correlated with the water retention and negatively correlated with the water content. The results of this study can be used as reference information for industrial quality control and consumer purchases.

Background Genetic predisposition of the inflammatory-host response may affect the development of psoriasis. Previous studies have shown that copy number variations (CNVs) of β-defensin genes ( DEFB ) are associated with the susceptibility of psoriasis in Caucasian populations. Objectives This study aimed to assess the role of the CNVs of the DEFB4 gene and functional variants in the DEFB1 gene in Taiwanese patients with psoriasis. Methods In total, 196 patients with psoriasis and 196 control individuals were analyzed for the presence of the DEFB4 CNVs using the paralogue ratio test, and also for the DEFB1 polymorphisms rs11362, rs1800972, and rs1799946, using a polymerase chain reaction. Results None of the polymorphisms were found to be associated with psoriasis. The distribution of DEFB4 genomic CNVs did not significantly differ between the control group and psoriasis group. The frequencies of patients who carried a greater than the median (≥ 5) number of copies did not significantly differ in patients with psoriasis and controls. The multivariate analysis similarly revealed that the DEFB4 CNVs were not associated with psoriasis (odds ratio = 1.03, 95% confidence interval = 0.89–1.19, p = 0.720). No significant difference was detected in the genotype and allele distribution for any of the individual DEFB1 polymorphisms between the cases and the controls. Finally, the overall haplotype frequency profiles derived from the three polymorphisms did not significantly differ between the cases and the controls. Conclusion Our results do not suggest that these genetic variants of the β-defensin genes contribute to the genetic background of psoriasis in Taiwanese patients.

The spectrometer was used to measure the wavelength of illumination, but the intensity of the spectrometer was large because of its complex optical path and component. In contrast, the photo diode (PD) was applied to detect the light intensity, but the total intensity volume was detected instead of each wavelength. Therefore, the novelty sensor was developed to measure the lighting dose that irradiated by the light at specific wavelengths. The light emitted diode (LED) at different wavelengths were fabricated by different semiconductor processes and doping different materials, and it will emit the light when the current pass through the component. Moreover, the reverse effect would be induced and the electron of materials would move run and the current would be activated when the LED was irradiated by the illumination source. Therein, the LED as a dose sensor has a characteristic that was only being activated by the light source at the same wavelength. In the experiment, three different colors of LED (red-670nm, green-528nm, blue-485nm) were employed to be the dosage sensor, which called as light-receiving diode (LRD), and the same LED were also the light source to irradiate the dosage sensor. From the results, the relationship between the intensity and the irradiance distance and angle was established, and the minimum variation between the measured and evaluated intensity of 3 % was obtained. In the future, the actual lighting dose could be evaluated from the presented information about the manuscript and without wearing the detection module in the lighting therapy process. Moreover, the evaluated could be recorded to investigate the effect between the lighting dose and physiological mechanisms or diseases.

Flowmeters are widely used in various industrial fields, and the measurement method is divided into two ways, direct measurement and indirect measurement. In general, the sensing principles of common indirect flowmeters are based on magnetic, ultrasonic, vortex, thermal, and so on. However, each of these flowmeters has its own limitations in actual application; especially, most of them cannot perform the immediately plug-in measurement. In the study, we use a strain gauge attached to tube wall and a 630 nm laser incident on the metal wire of strain gauge to evaluate the flow rate of fluid in tube by its scattering light generated from the edge of metal wire. Therein, an optical receiver can be used to sense the intensity difference and its frequency from the scattering light due to the shift of wire edge. In addition, the resistance difference and its fluctuated frequency on strain gauge can be used to correct the evaluation error of flow rate due to the deformation of outer tube. In the experiment, a common strain gauge and a diode laser were used to detect the resistance difference of strain gauge and the light intensity difference scattered from its wire edge, and their fluctuated frequency were also recorded to parameterize the evaluation of flow rate.

This study involved developing a meter for rapidly evaluating the state of health (SOH) of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The key component was a magnetic induction antenna (MIA) module with an interdigital pattern fabricated using a 355-nm pulsed ultraviolet laser system. For inducing high voltage from the LIB to the MIA module for evaluating the SOH, interdigital patterns of four line widths (i.e., 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 mm) were designed. The experimental results indicate that patterns with wider lines induce higher voltages. However, patterns using the 0.75-mm line offer optimal SOH measurements, because those with the 1.0-mm line yielded lower power storage. The optimal operating frequency for enhancing SOH identification was found to be 700 kHz. In addition, this study established an empirical equation for expressing the relationship between the induced voltage and SOH of LIBs.

This paper presents a non-contact measurement method for the evaluation of human blood pressure. A reflection type optical imaging system was developed to interactively capture the human palmar back images with illumination of dual light sources. By a continuous measurement, the variation of oxygen saturation in palmar digital vein could be monitored. The fluctuation frequency of the oxygen saturation was also obtained by FFT algorithm. Through the comparison with electronic sphygmomanometer, the study succeeded in establishing a relationship between the natural blood pressure of human and venous fluctuation frequency. Also, the influence of external pressure for blood vessels on fluctuation frequency was studied. The results show that the fluctuation frequency of oxygen saturation linearly increases with the natural blood pressure or external pressure decreasing. The proposed innovations represent a solution for remote medical diagnosis technology with low risk of infection and high biocompatibility.

Inductive charging is one of the major wireless charging methods used to induce current through the coil inductances of a receiver. In this study, a 355-nm ultraviolet laser was used to create planar square-spiral inductances (PSSIs) on a copper-coated glass substrate. To obtain the optimal micromachining effect, coils with various line widths (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 1.9 mm) were developed on the substrate surface by laser direct writing technique and using a 3-W pulsed laser at various scanning speeds (200, 600, and 1,000 mm/s) and pulse repetition frequencies (60, 80, and 100 kHz). Scanning electron microscopy results revealed that a high pulse repetition frequency and fast scanning speed can reduce the oxidation degree of processed samples. Furthermore, the edge aspect ratio was dependent on the increasing scanning speed, but the increase in the aspect ratio was not substantial. Subsequently, a wireless charging module was used to evaluate the laser ablation quality of the PSSIs, which the induction capacity increased as the oxidation degree of the PSSIs decreased and demonstrated the highest induction capacity of 11.34 % when the scanning speed was 2,000 mm/s. However, because of the power loss during wireless charging and the oxidation degree of the coil surface, the actual inductance value was approximately 15 % of the value estimated using the modified Wheeler formula. In the future, these PSSIs can be applied in wireless charging modules and the results can serve as a reference for enhancing induction capacity in PSSI design.

Laser ablation technology is used to isolate magnetic material to generate a local magnetic field effect. The impact of an induced magnetic field is enhanced by using the external magnetic field and can be widely employed to collect magnetic particles and position biomolecular in the bio-examination field. In addition, the magnetic field is affected and induced by the thermal stress produced after energy is exerted on the materials. Therefore, this study presents the phase of induced magnetic field (PIMF) of ferromagnetic film (Ni—1-μm thick) isolated using a 355-nm pulsed ultraviolet laser. In the experiment, three patterns comprising the following shapes and various isolated angle were designed for testing: hexagon (type I, 120°), L shape (type II, 90°), and cross shape (type III, 90°). The magnetic force microscopy image showed that when the isolating angle decreased, the PIMF increased, the value of which at the periphery of the corner of the type I and II patterns was −3.96° and −4.09°, respectively. In addition, by increasing the ablation time and residual thermal stress remaining in the material to increase the impact of the material’s properties when laser scanning speed was reduced from 1,000 to 500 mm/s, the PIMF value increased from −4.09° to −5.82°. The PIMF value of the type III pattern increased to −9.87° because the residual thermal stress was twice that of the type II pattern. In the future, the experimental results can be used as a helpful reference for controlling magnetic particles in biomedical chips.

This study presents a maskless method to conduct microelectrode patterning of metal films using pulsed UV-laser-writing technology. The experimental procedures involved designing the ablation region of a glass substrate, ablation path planning, and determining detailed laser-writing parameters. The various parameters used in a UV-laser-writing system were investigated and analyzed using an optical microscope and a three-dimensional confocal laser scanning microscope. This technique was successfully applied in patterning aluminum (Al) thin film on a glass substrate for use in microheater devices. The measurements of electrical resistance and temperature distribution on the substrate demonstrated that no short circuiting occurred in the microheater, confirming the quality of the electrical isolation values.

The yellow-ring (YR) is a chromatism phenomenon which is caused by the inhomogeneous phosphor layer of the white-light LED (WLED). The characterized lightspot with YR is that the yellow light appears in the periphery of white lightspot zone. The lightspot image of WLED can be acquired from two approaches; projective lightspot method (PLM) and transmissive lightspot method (TLM). By the PLM system, the lightspot could be projected on the spot screen (wall or others) and its image is acquired by a CCD camera. However, the working distance between camera and sample WLED must be larger (~ 2 m) to obtain the lightspot image without tilt aberration. For the convenience of automatic inspection, the working distance in the TLM system can be modified to 0.3 m. Since the light travels through the spot screen, such as copier paper or acrylic plate, etc., the camera cannot obtain the real lightspot image in the TLM system. In practice, the material of spot screen will absorb and scatter the WLED light, and in the image color would be a bit different between the real lightspot and the acquired lightspot. In order to improve the above disadvantages, the study presents the reflective lightspot method (RLM) that the camera acquires the reflective lightspot image from the 50/50 beam splitter at the same optical axis. The RLM system is not only able to capture the tilt-less lightspot image, but also obtain readily the non-saturated image. The experiment results show the RLM system has the better evaluation of YR index (YRI), and is more suitable for the automatic inspection of WLEDs.

In this paper, we report a facial method for fabricating stable superhydrophobic films from expanded graphite (EG)/carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer composites. This method possesses the advantages of being both simple and inexpensive as well as utilizing non-fluorine-containing compounds. The as-prepared EG/CNT/polymer composites exhibit a good superhydrophobicity with a high water contact angle (162°). A sliding angel of 6° for a 6 µL droplet indicates excellent non-sticking behavior. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic EG/CNT/polymer composites had excellent environmental stability with regard to both heating and organic solvent treatment in terms of the contact angle to water. Such superhydrophobic coatings have potential applications in microfluidic devices, liquid transportation, and nonwetting surfaces.

Laser ablation technology has widely been applied in the clothing industry in recent years. However, the laser mechanism would affect the quality of fabric contours and its components. Hence, this study examined carbonization and oxidation conditions and contour variation in nonwoven, cotton, and composite leather fabrics cut by using an ultraviolet laser at a wavelength of 355 nm. Processing parameters such as laser power, pulse frequency, scanning speed, and number of pulses per spot were adjusted to investigate component variation of the materials and to determine suitable cutting parameters for the fabrics. The experimental results showed that the weights of the component changed substantially by pulse frequency but slightly by laser power, so pulse frequency of 100 kHz and laser power of 14 W were the approximate parameters for three fabrics for the smaller carbonization and a sufficient energy for rapidly cutting, which the pulse duration of laser system was fixed at 300 μs and laser irradiance was 0.98 J/mm2 simultaneously. In addition, the etiolate phenomenon of nonwoven was reduced, and the component weight of cotton and composite leather was closed to the value of knife-cut fabric as the scanning speed increased. The approximate scanning speed for nonwoven and composite leather was 200 mm/s, and one for cotton was 150 mm/s, respectively. The sharper and firmer edge is obtained by laser ablation mechanism in comparison with traditional knife cutting. Experimental results can serve as the reference for laser cutting in the clothing industry, for rapidly providing smoother patterns with lower carbonization and oxidation edge in the fashion industry.

Body temperature and oxygen saturation are two important factors to evaluate the wound healing and infection situation in human. Because of the higher oxygen levels in the blood, the wound infection rate in the body temperature below 36 °C will be 10% higher than that in the body temperature higher than 36 °C. During Light therapy (LT), the body temperature will be enhanced and the higher cell division rate can make the wound healing faster. In the past, the radiation treatment in photodynamic therapy (PDT) is usually processed by red light with a wavelength of 633 ± 2 nm and the light dose is approximately from 20 to 50 J/cm2. However, the skin of different patient has a different radiation absorption, so the change of temperature in human body will also be different. Based on the varied radiation light dose, this study aims to analyze the impact of the change of oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ) to obtain the proper irradiation process (PIP). In the experiments, the red LED light (630 nm) was adopted to irradiate on the human body and its output power can be varied to observe the body temperature change. The result of the experiment shows that the skin temperature can keep at 37°C using 950 mW power, and SpO 2 (90.8638 %) can also have the maximum increase. In addition, SpO 2 (91.5115 %) won't increase if the irradiance is over 30 minutes. Therefore, the PIP can keep steadily the skin temperature at normal body temperature (NBT, 37°C) and provide the best reference for dermatologists to improve the therapeutic effect of patient effectively.

This study presents an inspection system to detect the growth defects of silicon crystals that comprise a CCD camera, an LED light source, and power modulation. The defects on multicrystalline silicon can be observed clearly while the silicon wafer were irradiated by the red LED light at a small lighting angle (i.e., 20–30°). However, the growth defects on monocrystalline silicon wafer were difficult to observe because of it low image intensity. And then, the growth defects image was significantly enhanced when the wafer was illuminated by a white LED (WLED) and rotated at a specific angle (i.e., 23°). The experimental results showed that the WLED illumination system made the growth defects more easily observable than did other LED sources (i.e., red, blue, and green LEDs). In addition, the proposed inspection system can be used for on-line fast detection for quality control of monocrystalline silicon wafer.

This paper presents the development of a portable microscope with dielectric liquid lens. This device provides the tunable working distance from 7.6 mm to 6.7 mm by adjusting the voltage of dielectric liquid lens. The liquid lens's response time is about 200 ms and electric power consumption about 0.32 mW.

The skin illuminated of two lights at different wavelength can be applied to detect the oxygen saturation of human blood. Due to the absorption coefficient of oxy- (HbO2) and deoxy- (Hb) hemoglobin are different at the wavelength 660 nm and 890 nm, the transmitted and reflected light within the skin can be used to compute the oxygen saturation image of skin. However, the intensities of skin images illuminated by a 20 mW NIR-LED are too low to determine the position of blood vessel when acquired by the color CCD camera. In order to improve the disadvantages, a mono camera was used and the irradiated distance and angle between LED light and test hand were adjusted to acquire the higher resolution and contrast blood vessel images for the oxygen saturation calculation. In the experiment, we developed the suitable angle to irradiate NIR light is at 75 degrees because the reflected and scattered effect could be generated significantly from both vertical and horizontal direction. In addition, the best contrast vessel images can be obtained when the shutter time is set at 44.030 ms and the irradiated distance was at the range 140-160 mm due to the intensity ratio between tissue and vessel region is the highest and the intensities of image would not be saturated or become too low when these two parameters were adjusted slightly. In future, the proposed parameters and results can be applied to the oxygen saturation measurement in the clinical diagnosis.

The yellow-ring (YR) is a chromatism phenomenon which is caused by the inhomogeneous phosphor layer of the whitelight LED (WLED) and can be observed from the projected WLED lightspot. In general, the lights emitted from a WLED will focus on the specific range to form a circular lightspot; in the meanwhile, the YR will appear on the periphery of this lightspot. In our previous study, the evaluation of YR phenomenon was graded by the YR index (YRI), which is the product of the yellow light intensity (Y) and total light intensity (I). Therein, the maximum value of YRI is a crucial optical parameter for determining the YR degree and a YR evaluation model is as the criterion for quality control of WLED. In this article, the YR distribution of MR-16 triplet lens module related to the distance (pitch) between two of three WLEDs will be discussed. Experimental results show that the YRI of triple lens WLED module is lower than one of single lens WLED module due to the overlapped effect of WLED lightspots. In addition, the YR degree of triplet lens WLED module will be lower if the pitch is longer, but the unintended dark-corner effect will appear when the pitch is enough longer.

A plasma polymerization coating process named Dielectric Resolution Enhancement Coating Technology (DiRECT) is proposed to shrink critical dimensions (CDs) of space and hole patterns. Fluorocarbon plasmas are used as the precursors to coat a polymer layer on the patterned photo-resist. By adding only one processing step, we are able to shrink poly space and contact hole to sub-90 nm-level using 248-nm lithography. The results of our extensive tests have demonstrated the production-worthiness of this technique for its consistent lot-to-lot repeatability, tight within-wafer CD uniformity, and low defect level.

A filtering macrolens was developed to simultaneously achieve macro-optical imaging and correct spectrum aberration. The macrolens was a doublet lens comprising a filtering lens and a close-up lens. The shape of the filtering lens was designed to eliminate the optical path differences between the light rays in the absorbing medium. The close-up lens was designed to decrease the effective focal length of an ordinary camera lens to provide high magnification capability and collimate the diverging beams through the filtering lens. Experimental results demonstrated that the spectrum uniformity of the macro-optical images was markedly improved by the filtering macrolens. This innovation may be used in finite conjugate optical systems.